December 15, 2010

The Inspector Clouseau of World Leaders

I came across this funny 2008 Daniel Craig interview in Parade magazine. In the interview, which I vaguely remember at the time, Craig was asked who would make the better Bond, then presidential candidates Obama or McCain?


“Obama would be the better Bond because—if he’s true to his word—he’d be willing to quite literally look the enemy in the eye and go toe-to-toe with them. McCain, because of his long service and experience, would probably be a better M,” he adds, mentioning Bond’s boss, played by Dame Judi Dench. “There is, come to think of it, a kind of Judi Dench quality to McCain.”


After I stopped laughing, I grimly realized Craig was onto something. If Obama's real enemies are republicans, people who cling to God and guns and tax paying Americans, Craig was absolutely right about the toe-to-toe thing. 


What I really love is the fantasy world that liberals inhabit. The guy with no military experience, probably never held a gun, rides a girls bike, and would like to be left alone to eat his waffle, this is the secret agent? While a man who flew ground attack jets into enemy territory, endured capture and torture and refused special treatment because his father and grandfather were four star admirals, is .... Judi Dench.


As his track record for incompetence grows, the one movie character that Obama is like, is the great Peter Sellers character, Inspector Clouseau. In this classic scene from "The Return of the Pink Panther," we see our hero in action, solving all the wrong problems and oblivious to the reality around him. The blind man's brilliant and hilarious defense of the free market is just as perplexing to Obama as it is to Clouseau.


The major difference between Clouseau and Obama, of course, is that we laugh at Sellers' imitation of a bumbling detective, but not at Obama's imitation of a president.


How can an idiot be a policeman? Indeed. Or an actor.

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