Posted on 08/02/2015 12:34:49 PM PDT by WilliamIII
As a teenager, I remember watching the 1968 televised debates between Gore Vidal and William F. Buckley during the two national political conventions and thinking that they were way more entertaining than any of the TV dramas that were popular at the time. Those debates, unaccountably unavailable for the most part since then, have been resurrected as the centerpiece of the terrific documentary “Best of Enemies,” directed by Morgan Neville and Robert Gordon. The film positions those debates as a harbinger of the ideological sword-crossing that has become a staple of TV news. Except what we have now, as opposed to the Vidal-Buckley confrontations, is a lot more yammery than eloquent.
(Excerpt) Read more at csmonitor.com ...
I watched those. I was 22.We should have a WFB and an RR in every generation but both are once-in-a-century-maybe characters.
All I recall is the “crypto-Nazi” and “Why you goddamned queer!” exchange, which should be archived in some sort of museum showing when and how to deal with an insulting Liberal. “And if I punch you you’ll stay punched” ... classic political television.
Saw the trailer. Playing at a theatre only 50 miles from me!
Later
A reporter asked: "What would be the first thing you would do as Mayor.
"Demand a recount".
I do well remember that night
Couldn’t stop laughing at Buckley threatening to punch Vidal out
Also remember Rather taking one in the gut from one of Daley’s goons
Saw some interviews on this somewhere earlier this week - apparently when they were setting up the show ABC or whoever it was asked Buckley who he wouldn’t debate were he to be part of the program - he told them Vidal, so naturally the first person they asked to be on with him was Vidal - maybe Buckley wasn’t as smart as he was reputed to be.....
“The next time you call me a Nazi, I’m going to punch you in the G—d-—ed mouth.”
that 68 Dem convention was unforgetttable TV ! , both inside and outside the convention hall . poor Hubert Humphrey
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