McCain/Palin supporters are idiots. So said the scribes of ABC's Boston Legal who scripted a show that went out of its way to trash Sarah Palin and elevate the election of Barack Obama to mythical status.
Oh. And bloggers are "entry level life forms that intellectually have yet to emerge from the primordial ooze."
The thrust of the storyline was a lawsuit brought by a woman who claimed she was fired from her job because she voted for McCain. As it turns out her Republican boss fired her because he thought she was stupid and based his conclusion on the fact that the woman was an ardent Hillary supporter who voted for McCain because of Sarah Palin. A double slam from the left-loving writers of Boston Legal.
The Obama-supporting characters "Alan Shore" and "Shirley Schmidt" played by James Spader and Candice Bergen represented the Hillary/Palin-supporting woman even though they did think she was stupid...for supporting the McCain ticket. "Schmidt" tells the character "Martha" as much in a conference.
"SHIRLEY SCHMIDT:" Honey, the sexist in all this is you. ... You claim to be a staunch Hillary Clinton supporter. You--you walked into that booth and voted against everything Hillary stands for, and why? Because the republicans added to their ticket someone they referred to at the convention as "the hot chick."
But it was the character played by Spader who really delivered the Hollywood slapdown of half the country in a dialogue exchange with Bergen's character in which they gauzily reflected on what it means to be "American" and the election of Barack Obama. (My emphasis added.)
"SCHMIDT:" Do you think... Martha and Sarah and Joe the... is he an electrician? "
"ALAN SHORE:" Plumber, unlicensed. (Chuckles)
"SCHMIDT:" are-- are they the real Americans?
"SHORE:" Not necessarily. I think that's what this election just proved, that real Americans aren't just rural and white. The portrait of real Americans has been redrawn in this election. Real Americans are of all ages, races, ethnicities. They live in cities and apartments as well as... farms. I... we have a president-elect who fits into no category or demographic whatsoever other than he's an American.
"SCHMIDT:" God, I wept that night. (Chuckles) did you?
"SHORE:" No, I just... watched and watched and... didn't want the night to end. I already miss Sarah Palin, though. (Laughs) she was fun while she lasted. I hope they let her keep the wardrobe.
"SCHMIDT:" I still have to say, though, as heartened as I am by the election and by America...
"SHORE:" What? (Laughs)
"SCHMIDT:" Martha's a little bit of an idiot.
"ALAN SHORE:" Shirley, almost 47% of this country didn't vote for Obama, perhaps because they disagreed with him on the issues, which is fine. But some, no doubt, because they thought he was Muslim with terrorists on his speed dial, and others because th-they were convinced he was not only socialist, but even worse, a bad bowler, and others still because they simply loved those cream-colored jackets Sarah may have to give back. (Laughs) But there's one thing all those idiots have in common.
"SHIRLEY SCHMIDT" What?
"SHORE:" They still get to vote. (Laughs)
In addition to offending 55 million Americans with this storyline (click here for viewer feedback on Boston Legal's web site), the show's writers also took aim at the blogosphere, Dick Cheney, and the American electorate in a monologue delivered by Spader's character arguing on behalf of his "stupid" client.
"SHORE:" The unassailable right to vote is the core principle of any democracy. And people have the right to cast their ballot for whomever they want-- for good reasons or for bad reasons or for no reason at all. Let's face it, your honor, we as a nation are horribly uninformed when it comes to politics. Approximately one-third of the people in this country, people of voting age, couldn't tell you the name of our current vice president. Now admittedly, some of us like to block it out, but even so, only two in five adult Americans know we have three branches of government. And Mr. Feldcamp expects his employees to actually know the political issues of the day? Well, today our news programs consist solely of sensational headlines and sound bites. People forgo newspapers for the internet, where instead of relying on credentialed journalists, they turn to these bloggers-- sort of entry-level life-forms that intellectually have yet to emerge from the primordial ooze. This is how we've gotten the elected officials we've gotten. We've never really cared about issues. Come on. We're more concerned with how Hillary looks in a pantsuit or whether Barack can bowl. We don't always go for the best or the brightest. We elect the guy we'd most like to have a beer with or the gal we'd most like to feel up in the back of the car. Now I certainly wouldn't pick my airline pilot that way or my accountant or doctor, but for my president, so often, it's, "give me the blue-collar, lunch-bucket, good ol' boy who fits in best at the pancake breakfast." The problem with Mr. Feldcamp, and forgive me, I hesitate to say this about anybody, but he's an elitist. [...] I realize that's much worse than being called stupid. [...] The message is, we vote for who we like. It's as simple as that. We don't need to have a reason. It's as simple as that. The founding fathers did not form a meritocracy. This is a democracy. We can be as stupid as we choose. We're Americans. We're as simple as that.
