PC

I couldn't believe how wrong-headed Charles Taylor's review of the Primary Colors DVD was. At least not until I got to the end.

I didn't read the novel by "Anonymous" (Joe Klein), though I got the impression if it weren't a roman a clef about the Clintons, it wouldn't have sold too many copies. And I'm certainly not going to watch the awful Mike Nichols film again. But I do remember one thing about it--the movie's a love letter to Bill and Hillary, especially Bill.

Here's how Taylor sees it: "Nichols looks at Jack and Susan Stanton and sees nothing more than a pair of Dogpatch pretenders to the throne, people whose every pragmatic move is held up as proof that their talk of accomplishing something is just a pretense to accumulating power." Taylor doesn't get it. In the film's most memorable scene, no one can find John Travolta (Jack Stanton/Bill Clinton) because he's out eating donuts. But while he's doing that, he's also connecting with the common people, really listening to them, because he cares.

The general plot is about the shenanigans of a Presidential campaign, and the Clinton character is responsible for more than his share. But at the end, when he's on the precipice, he's reminded that since he's a Democrat, he is good and his opponent is evil, so he must go on.

You'd think this couldn't be clearer, and I wasn't sure what Taylor thought he saw, but then I read these words:

Nichols seems to disapprove of the Stantons' ability to play in that dirty a game. Would he feel the same way now, given what happened to John Kerry, who chose to stay above the fray in the Swift Boat smear? Would Nichols consider it dirty politics if Kerry had deigned to fight back? [...] God only knows what smears are being prepared against Hillary Clinton. But it must be obvious to the goons readying those attacks that she's not just going to take them. The coiled energy of Thompson's Susan Stanton, that palpable resentment at having to downplay her own intelligence, suggests what might be unleashed in a Hillary Clinton no longer in the supporting role of candidate's wife.

So Taylor is one of those people who actually believe that the problem with liberals is they're just too nice to respond to the dirty, unfair attacks of conservatives. Anyone this blind can't be trusted to understand even the most basic political tropes of a Hollywood movie.