Film about Ohio 2004 claims Bush campaign run by pros, Kerry's by amateurs

[DeepModem Mom]

NYT: Is There a Hit Film in the Battle for Ohio?
By DAVID M. HALBFINGER
Published: November 10, 2005


....To the lengthening list of political films vying for the attention of a polarized public, James D. Stern - a serious Hollywood financier and Broadway producer who dabbles at directing his own movies - hopes to add one that looks squarely at the 2004 presidential campaign between President Bush and Senator John Kerry....

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While it lacks the partisanship and personality of Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11," the as-yet-untitled picture relies on a dispassionate, journalistic delivery - Mr. Stern's liberal leanings notwithstanding - to provide concise, pointed and even funny answers to anyone still wondering how Mr. Bush managed to defeat Mr. Kerry.

About 13 months ago, Mr. Stern and a partner, Adam Del Deo, dispatched 15 camera crews across Ohio to chronicle the final days of the house-to-house struggle between Republican and Democratic political organizers in the most critical battleground state in the country.

The resulting film, which the co-directors are still polishing in hopes of getting it accepted by the Sundance Film Festival, shows Republican campaigners functioning like a well-oiled machine and Democrats looking incapable of ordering lunch, let alone organizing a major get-out-the-vote operation. These scenes, interspersed with interviews with top strategists for both the Bush and the Kerry campaigns - with the glaring exceptions of Karl Rove and Bob Shrum - by and large leave the impression that the Bush campaign was run by major-league professionals and the Kerry campaign by bush-league amateurs.

One sequence is particularly memorable: After Tad Devine, a top Kerry consultant, is quoted earnestly explaining the Democrats' strategic decision to appeal to swing voters, or "persuadables," an unshaven young Democratic operative is shown knocking on doors of these supposed persuadables in Ohio. When a young man eating his breakfast says he is leaning to the Republican side, the hapless organizer meekly asks, "Can I persuade you otherwise?" but has nothing more to add as the door shuts in his face....


http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/10/movies/10ohio.html