LIKABLE SUBJECT At some points, Inside the Bubble actually humanizes JK

[Mass]

Another review of Inside the Bubble. As often when it comes to the Boston Phoenix talking about Kerry, this article is both pleasant to read and infuriating by moments. I guess the review can be best explain by the end of the article, which tells better than anything what the author thinks of Kerry.

Can somebody who knows the author give some background. I am wondering if he has some history with Kerry.

http://www.bostonphoenix.com/boston/news_features/other_stories/multi_3/documents/05025920.asp

Requiem for a candidate
Reliving the John Kerry campaign at the movies
BY ADAM REILLY

LIKABLE SUBJECT At some points, Inside the Bubble actually humanizes Kerry.

Inside the Bubble, a new documentary about John Kerry’s failed 2004 presidential campaign, hasn’t hit theaters yet. In fact, it doesn’t even have a distributor. But judging from the buzz that’s developing around the film — which debuted at the New York Television Festival last week — that should change soon. Late last month, New York Daily News gossip columnist Lloyd Grove hyped it as "potentially devastating," and quoted an unnamed source who said it could be "the silver bullet that kills Kerry’s presidential chances for 2008." The Note, ABC’s heavily trafficked political Web site, gushed that "there are almost no boring scenes in this film," and praised the Kerry-focused segments as "quite revealing."

Kerry partisans have been less kind. The Unofficial John Kerry Blog (kerryblog.blogspot.com) suggested that Inside the Bubble should be retitled The Snore Room — an unflattering reference to The War Room, the 1993 Clinton-campaign documentary — and dismissed its director, Steve Rosenbaum, as "a shill the infamous Swift Liars and the red elephants." (Rosenbaum says he votes Democratic.) They’re not the only skeptics. Recently, John Dickerson, Slate’s political correspondent, lamented the film’s focus on second-tier operatives and the corresponding absence of top advisors like Bob Shrum and John Sasso, each of whom barely shows up over the course of almost two hours.

...

Split the difference, and you’ve got your answer. In the end, Inside the Bubble is both a flawed and compelling film — which is only fitting, since John Kerry was both a flawed and compelling candidate.

...

All that said, the film is stronger and more engaging than its harshest detractors would suggest. To begin with, it drives home the grim realities of high-level campaign work — the anxiety, the monotony, the claustrophobia, the exhaustion — in an unexpectedly visceral way. The three main characters, Loftus, Morehouse, and Nicholson, have radically different temperaments: Loftus is voluble, Morehouse is an even-keeled family man, Nicholson is a joker with a dry sense of humor. But by the end of the film, we see each of them pushed to their physical and psychological limits.

More significantly, the film occasionally humanizes Kerry, and even casts him in a noble light. With the jockeying for ’08 already under way in earnest, it’s hard to find anyone excited by the prospect of a second Kerry run. The right candidate could have beaten Bush, or so the thinking goes, and Kerry simply wasn’t the right candidate. As a corollary to this point of view, there’s plenty of lingering anti-Kerry resentment. Why did you wait so long to fight back against the Swift Boat Veterans? Why, even after it became clear there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, did you say that had you known that at the time you still would have voted for the war? And why did you wear that stupid barn jacket?

...

In yet another scene, Kerry sits in a locker room at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, waiting to do a satellite interview that’s plagued with technical difficulties. At one point, he talks to himself in Italian; at another, he jokes about the stench in the room. But what really stands out in this particular shot is the loneliness of the candidate. Kerry blinks into the klieg lights, laboring to amuse himself and his handlers and then switching into full interview mode (complete with full interview smile) as soon as the satellite connection is made. Along the way, we can see the fatigue set in, both emotional and physical. And we feel an unexpected surge of sympathy for this talented, accomplished, infuriatingly self-destructive man, who came so close to delivering us from Bush but who couldn’t get the job done. For that alone, Rosenbaum deserves a great deal of credit.

[Island Blue]

1. "It's hard to find anyone excited by the prospect of a second Kerry run."

Well, obviously he hasn't found us! And what's this guy's problem with the barn jacket? I love the barn jacket.

In the full article the writer once again brings up Hillary rolling her eyes when the "got wood" exchange that took place during the second debate. When I saw her do that on one of the clips of the film someone posted a few weeks ago, I thought she was doing that in response to Chimpy's comment. Did it seem like that to y'all?

I hope this writer is correct in his assessment that the film helps to humanize Kerry. Some people obviously need a little more help seeing the true man, and if this film can help in that process then it at least one redeeming quality.

[Mass]

3. For an article from the Boston media, this is not that bad.

even if I disagree deeply with some parts.

For the Hill thing, he notes that Kerry was right (though I agree that it seems more like if Hill was rolling her eyes at Bush).

[TayTay]

2. The Boston Phoenix endorsed him in the NH Primary

In his nearly 20 years in the Senate, John Kerry has actively dealt with issues of war and peace, terrorism and international malfeasance, social justice and human rights. He’s grappled with the best way to provide health care and education to all citizens. In his private life, he served in Vietnam, where he was three times wounded and twice decorated for bravery. Recognizing the magnitude of our national error, he then helped lead the fight to change policy there, along the way helping to raise two daughters. He understands the balance between the public and the private.

We think Kerry is the best of the field. We urge New Hampshire voters to give him their vote.

That was nice. They liked him then. And they liked him last fall when they endorsed him for Pres:


NOT SINCE Richard Nixon skulked through the White House has this nation been faced with a presidency as dangerous, as secretive, and as malevolent as that of George W. Bush. The Phoenix is proud to endorse John Kerry, a man of strong leadership qualities, sound judgment, and compassionate leanings. Senator Kerry would be a worthy choice regardless of his opponent. But because his opponent is Bush, Kerry’s election is a necessity.

They just find Kerry a bit of a cipher, as do the rest of the Boston media. And he did not win and they see that as partly his fault. (Though self-destructive is a bit too far. I did like the 'talented and accomplished' part though.)

[whometense]

4. If Boston journalists

(with the notable exception of Tom Oliphant) spent a quarter of the energy listening to what Kerry says that they spend inventing snarky things to say about him I'd be a much happier woman. I don't understand why they find him so difficult to figure out.

It "humanizes" him?? I don't find Kerry infuriating; I find shoddy, lazy journalism infuriating. The scene where he speaks italian was charming, but surprising?? Hardly.

[Mass]

5. These guys behave as if they were discovering Kerry.

He has been in Massachusetts politics for more than 30 years now.

[TayTay]

6. Ture, true, but then they would have to get real jobs

so, it would be a mistake.

I did read a lot of old snarky Boston Herald stories in the archives recently and they are much funnier than snarky Globe stories. The Herald is the petunia in the onion field around here, what with them being so Republican and all. So, instead of succeeding in their mission of creating more Mass Repubs, they snarky. Some of their stuff on Kerry is witty, awful but witty as hell. (Okay, you can throw things at me, but it's true. Some of the old folks who are now all gone from the Herald could actually write. Now all they have is Howie and he is mentally unstable.)

And what was wrong with the barn coat? I liked it.

The Globe hates Kerry cuz he's a weeble. They keep hitting him and he doesn't fall down. He comes back. They can't understand how a guy can take it like that and not 'fall down.'