Gangsters are bad, Hillary.

It seems that whenever I begin to see the silver lining of a possible Hillary Clinton presidency, she does something that reminds me of the cloud. This past week it was the video announcing her campaign theme song. It mimicked the final scene of the final episode of The Sopranos, with Hillary flipping through songs in the booth jukebox, chatting with her poor, beleaguered husband while awaiting their poorly-parallel-parking daughter.

Now, never mind the galling impropriety of spoofing dysfunctional mobsters while seeking the office of President of the United States—I just don’t buy the Clintons as a mob family. I don’t. If there were a history of shady financial and land dealings, or of digging up FBI files on political enemies, or of serial adultery on the husband’s part, or of the wife accepting the adultery as long as the husband kept bringing home the bacon, or of numerous close associates in jail, or of close associates who committed suicide under odd circumstances, or of buddies who stole national security documents, or of disbarments, or of contempt of court charges, or of the willingness to say and do absolutely anything to maintain power (never mind your campaign promises), then it’d be believable. But Bill and Hillary are certainly not Tony and Carmela—“Clinton” doesn’t end in a vowel.

And what’s with the glare from Johnny Sack? It’s not like using Pacino or Caan or DeNiro in your ad—they’ve done enough roles that they’re known as actors and not simply the personification of mobsters. The guy who plays Johnny Sack will never be known for anything other than being Johnny Sack—he’s only in there to play up the mobster angle.

If you’re willing to mimic The Sopranos, why not just go for total tastelessness and produce a spot where Barack Obama wakes up with John Edwards’s severed head in his bed?

3 Responses to “Gangsters are bad, Hillary.”

  1. gatorbob Says:
    June 25th, 2007 at 10:31 PMIt’s not the lame attempt at connecting with popular culture that turns my stomach, it’s the lousy politics and the incessant triangulating that’s at the core of the Clinton campaign. Throughout my political life, the Democrats have been involved in a vain effort at regaining the “Reagan Democrats,” while there are 50 million potential voters out there who might be tempted into the polling booth with the promise of providing for people’s real needs (health care, education, and the like) and not treating our kids as if they were cannon fodder. Honestly, if it’s Hillary vs. Rudy (vs. Bloomberg even), I’m going Third Party again. Anyone join me?
  2. VDV Says:
    July 1st, 2007 at 11:54 AMRest easy, I’ll be 35 by 2012 and you can vote for me then.
  3. gatorbob Says:
    July 5th, 2007 at 7:33 AMDone!