Posted on 10/30/2008 9:03:12 AM PDT by dead
Smits Stumps For Obama, Who Inspired His Character
CHALK up yet another example of life imitating art - TV style.
Former "West Wing" star Jimmy Smits last night began campaigning for Barack Obama.
The actor - who on the show played a young, Hispanic presidential candidate loosely based on Obama - was set to appear at a rally in Kissimmee, Fla. last night.
< snip >
…As fictional Democratic Rep. Matt Santos, Smits "defeated" Republican Sen. Arnold Vinick (played by Alan Alda) to win the presidency in the final season of "West Wing" and become the country's first minority commander-in-chief.
The show's producers never made it a secret that Santos was actually modeled after a then-unknown Obama - not yet elected to the US Senate - when the character was created by "West Wing" writers in 2004.
"I drew inspiration from him in drawing [Santos]," "West Wing" writer/producer Eli Attie told a reporter.
< snip >
And, like Obama, Smits' Santos was a virtual unknown who'd served a few years in Congress before running for the presidency and was painted as too inexperienced for the job.
So how close are the parallels to Smits/Santos and Obama?
"We're living your scripts!" Obama's chief aide, David Axelrod, recently joked in an e-mail to Attie.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
But what really creeps me out is yet another example of "then unknown" Obama already appearing BIG TIME on the radar of the leftist movers and shakers in the entertainment/politics industry.
When Obama was still a student at Harvard Law School, he had an article written about him in the New York Times, and signed a $125,000 book deal from Simon & Schuster. He never was paid that money, because (you know, with classes and crack and all that) he never even got around to hiring his ghostwriter, and nothing was written.
So, after renegging on that contract, the deadbeat writer who had never written a thing and had been elected to nothing was given yet another book deal for $40,000. Not too shabby! No word on how much of that dough landed in William Ayer's bomber belt pocket.
(see - http://www.tcf.org/list.asp?type=NC&pubid=1425)
Meanwhile, on Hollywood's premier infomercial about why Republicans suck and Democrats are smart and sexy, they write a main character based on some lowly schlub of a State Senator from Illinois?
What's the dilly-yo?! Who exactly has been "shopping" this guy around for the last 20 years as the next big thing, and what exactly have they asked of him in return.
"We're living your scripts!" Obama's chief aide, David Axelrod, recently joked in an e-mail to Attie.
Yes, David, I get the exact same feeling. I want to know who's writing them for real.
Who's the peabrain who thinks Jimmy Smits is young?
Barack Obama Junior is a fence post turtle who has been groomed for the presidency. No way no how does he get two autobiography offers before he’s done anything, and has people “modeling” agitprop drama on his life without someone pulling some strings.
His campaign for the White House officially began in 2004 when he was presented to America at the DNC convention.
LOL!
He's doing a great job portraying an incompetent, bloodthirsty ADA on Dexter.
What a bunch of crap. Nobody knew who Obama was back then. He's just saying it now. If anything, he was based on Richardson.
Given the times, I'd put my money on Rahm Emanuel.
-PJ
Barack Obama's chief strategist, legendary political consultant David Axelrod, was fresh off Obama's successful Senate race when Eli Attie, a former speechwriter to Al Gore who was writing for The West Wing had several conversations with him. Attie says he drew considerable inspiration from Axelrod's impressions of Obama when conjuring Hispanic congressman Matt Santos, the successful dark-horse candidate on the show. Earlier this year, the web magazine Slate even edited the speeches of Obama and Santos together into an almost indistinguishable whole.
It's an interesting article, if you can get ahold of it.
“Who exactly has been “shopping” this guy around for the last 20 years as the next big thing, and what exactly have they asked of him in return.”
That’s the question that’s scaring the hell out of me! Obama himself won’t be running the government. When those who have been grooming him and paying for him for all of these years are going to ask for the return on their investment and it’s going to cost ALL of us.
Look down.
Obama, quite evidently, has been being groomed for “great things” for a long time. I am among those who wonder who has been backing him, for how long, and why.
What is more telling is newspaper articles written contemporaneously with the final season of The West Wing. One mentions that the Alan Alda Republican candidate was loosely based on - JOHN McCAIN. In fact, the Republican was supposed to win until cast member, who was the Democrat VP Candidate with “Santos,” died unexpectedly, and it was decided that the “audience” would like it better if the Spencer character was elected.
No where in the article, even though Eli Attles is mentioned, is it hinted that the Santos character is based on Barack Nobama. Wikipedia also does not mention Obama except as a parallel of the plot line to these primaries.
What is more telling is newspaper articles written contemporaneously with the final season of The West Wing. One mentions that the Alan Alda Republican candidate was loosely based on - JOHN McCAIN. In fact, the Republican was supposed to win until cast member, who was the Democrat VP Candidate with “Santos,” died unexpectedly, and it was decided that the “audience” would like it better if the Spencer character was elected.
No where in the article, even though Eli Attles is mentioned, is it hinted that the Santos character is based on Barack Nobama. Wikipedia also does not mention Obama except as a parallel of the plot line to these primaries.
He was young (and cute) in “L.A. Law” when I was a teenager.
I remember how giddy the L.A. Law firm was just after Clinton got elected. Their excitement was written right into the script.
Very good observation...and very scary
You find it disturbing. Imagine how Dead Man Waking Joe Biden feels. No wonder he's gone off the grid in Delaware.
(The only reason the West Wing writers had "Obama" beating "McCain" was that actor John Spencer, who played the VP candidate, died just before the election - as did his character)
Dems always won on the West Wing.
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