Comments on: Alex Gibney on Gandalf, Obama and the Death of the American Dream

By: Who Would Hunter S. Thompson Vote For? | Disinformation

Who Would Hunter S. Thompson Vote For? | Disinformation — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 09:49:29 +0000

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By: aden

aden — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 07:01:23 +0000

um I have a prombly with finding aragon from Lord of the rings

By: Anna

Anna — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 03:25:38 +0000

Nah, I don’t think Cosa Nostra guys ever say “y’all” — much less “once-beguiling.”

(We can be thankful for that, at least!)

By: Chuck

Chuck — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 15:49:02 +0000

I think the documentary that Gibney is thinking about is Mighty Times: The Children’s March. The Times wrote a pretty strong critique of the film’s director soon after it won an Oscar for best documentary short.

By: Xavier

Xavier — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 15:13:16 +0000

At the same time, that green light at the end of the dock is also a sense of real possibility. There are moments when America makes good on that myth. You can get angry when people abuse that myth and only pretend that it’s so, but you can also celebrate that, from time to time, it’s for real.

I’ve always been critical of Obama, and share Gibney’s about Obama’s willingness to compromise on issues for political benefit (FISA, public financing being two recent examples).

But this last paragraph captures the essence of the Obama’s message. Its a profound literary metaphor for the “audacity of hope” and belief in possibility that Obama spoke of in his speech on race and, more recently, in his speech on patriotism..

For some reason, maybe because “Gatsby” really spoke to me when I was in high school, until I really thought about that comparison, I wrote off much of what Obama said (”we are the ones we’ve been waiting for,” “the promise of America”) as political rhetoric. Which it is.

But that doesn’t mean its not what he believes. Or that its not the truth.