Examining the Election by Way of Pop Cultural Allusions

Jeff Greenfield, writing in Slate, examines all the elections since 1960 and suggests that many of them have come down to a choice between Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck, and the American electorate in its wisdom, always sides with Bugs.

In the spirit of that article, I think it's time we examine the last three remaining presidential candidates in terms of their resemblance to certain characters on Lost.

(some spoiler-ish comments will follow, so if you aren't caught up on the goings on, don't read this)

Sen. John McCain = John Locke

Sure he's crazy, sure he's cranky, but he can certainly kick some ass. Occasionally he puts his faith in the wrong people, but even when he does the wrong thing, it's for the right reasons. It's easy to picture Sen. McCain following a vision from "Tall Walt" and killing a stranger. Is that a bad thing for a President? It's for the voters to decide.

Sen. Barack Obama = Dr. Jack Shephard

I know that's a cruel comparison to make, but I think it's valid. Graceless under pressure, somewhat self-pitying, people put faith in him where it isn't warranted. Gives all the outward appearances of being a great and natural leader, yet has no proven track record of any accomplishments that would suggest he's fit for the task, and every time he's been tested has failed miserably. Also, his proudest moments seem to be when he's making his most boneheaded decisions. One other point of comparison, really, really bad taste in women.

Sen. Hillary Clinton = Ben Linus

Always reinventing himself, always scheming, always trying to work some sort of advantage. Seems to do best when put in positions of seeming powerlessness. You can have him bound, beaten, bloodied, and bruised, and yet that's when he has you right where he wants you. Favors manipulation over leadership, yet is thrust into a leadership position through sheer lust for power. Will do anything and everything and works his shadowy connections to manipulate everyone else on the island.



Not a great choice with any of them, if it were up to me, I think we should go with Sayid (I guess the real world equivalent would be Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, an able leader, who unfortunately is unqualified because of nation of birth) or even Hurley (sure he's crazy, but he's sweet and usually right about stuff, no real world analog I can think of) but they aren't running for President, so we are stuck with our choices.

The Warner Brothers School of International Diplomacy

Prof. Reynolds in this post, would seem to be advocating the Bugs Bunny school of International Diplomacy.

He's suggesting that we could get Elmer Jong-Il to use up all of his nuclear material by getting him to prove over and over again that he had a successful test.

(though to be fair to Elmer, . . . Daffy, Yosemite Sam, among others have fallen for the same ploy)

Supposed cowboy diplomacy replaced by potential rascally rabbit diplomacy.

I like it.

UPDATE: Ahhh, YouTube, good stuff that. Here's the specific scene from Ballot Box Bunny that I'm thinking of. Not a perfect parallel, but close enough, use the bad guy's orneriness against him might be the way to go, so long as the bad guys are the ones that end up going KABOOM.

Of course, that wasn't the first use of the booby trapped piano, it was first used in the Private Snafu cartoon below

But Bugs used similar techniques to great effect, and Kim Jong Il really does seem like a Looney Tunes bad guy, so maybe Looney Tunes techniques will be most effective.