Tuesday 21 June 2011

As Relevant Today As It Was Then (Well, Partly)

From the race for the 1944 US Presidential Election, a campaign film in support of Democratic President Franklin D. Roosevelt bagging a second term. We really like it.

As every schoolboy knows, FDR subsequently romped to victory, Thumping Republican candidate Thomas E. Dewey by 432 electoral votes to 99. Yes, he actually received 25,612,916 votes at the ballot to Dewey’s 22,017,929 in a contest that appears more one-sided than it actually was, but hey, that’s modern democracy.

The upshot of all this is that if Ed Milhouseiband (see what we did there?) wants a realistic chance of winning the next election, he’d better get on the blower to Aardman soon as*.

(*We know the next election won’t be for just under four years, but claymation isn’t quick.)

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Ian Jones said...

What a fantastic film. Cheers for tracking it down and giving it a plug, Mark. In the less cynical world of 1944, the promise of a "job for everyone" would surely have felt eminently reasonable.

There's more wit and imagination in that film than in most UK election broadcasts *since* the second world war. I'm guessing the director Charles M Jones is none other than Chuck Jones.

One tiny thing, wearing my pedant's hat: FDR was running for a fourth term in 1944.

Mark X said...

Thanks for the kind words, Ian. It is indeed a compelling piece of work, and of course you're right about FDR. Boh.

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