HOPING FOR A DIFFERENT ENDING: “RECOUNT” ON HBO

I can remember reading Doris Kearns Goodwin‘s wonderful No Ordinary Time, about the World War II years in the White House: FDR, Churchill, Eleanor – it’s a wonderful, inspiring story and forever changed my understanding of leadership.  I read the book on tape, mostly in my car. As I came to the book’s end, and the death of President Roosevelt, I drove around so that I could finish it.  All the while, I kept hoping — "maybe this time he won’t die."   Totally irrational but still – that was what I felt  And I didn’t feel it again until tonight, as I watched  Kevin Spacey, Tom Wilkinson, Laura Dern and Denis Leary in HBO‘s Recount, the story of the 2000 presidential election battle in Florida.

Reviews have reminded us that the story has been "altered" for dramatic reasons even though it’s presented as a docudrama.   There may be more drama and less docu than historians would wish, — but the basic reality is there – and from the perspective of 8 years and the traumas of the Bush Administration, very painful to watch.  In some ways it’s like watching a car accident about to happen – in slow motion — and not being able to do a thing to stop it.  Here’s a little bit of it:

All my live I’ve been a corny American girl.  Loved politics.
Believed in politics.  Worked in politics and then, for years, covered
politics.  I know how ugly it can get: the posturing, manipulation both
of people and truth, cruelty both to staff and candidates and general
lunacy of a campaign.  But this was different.  In so many way things
happened that were a direct violation of basic electoral laws and
democratic values.  In so many ways voters were disenfranchised, votes
went uncounted, laws were ignored.  In so any ways, flukes and
premeditated chicanery combined to distort what should have been the
outcome.

I know there are at least two sides to every election; I know that
those who sought a Bush presidency felt as strongly as the Gore
people.  I know that James Baker, who ran the Bush effort and is brilliantly portrayed by the elegant British actor Tom Wilkinson, (who played the sad, crazy lawyer in Michael Clayton,) is respected in more than partisan Republican circles.

But I also know that, in what was a gross distortion of the concept
of checks and balances, the United States Supreme Court, in a ruling
that was so bizarre that even they declared that it should never be
used as precedent, stopped a recount that would most likely have made
Al Gore president.  Prevented the counting of real American votes from
real American voters.  Denied the rights they are supposed to be
protecting.

I know that the incidents in the film, from the illegal purging of
20,000 voters from the rolls to the disgraceful behavior of Katherine
Harris, really happened.  I know that I’m shocked and saddened to
realize how my reaction is more despair than outrage.

And I know that, tonight, after repeating the wild ride that was the
battle in Florida, I hope that, having learned, the American people
will bring us a President we can trust; who is tough and fair, firm and
curious, smart and open-minded.  And finally, I’m grateful to the talented people who turned this story into a dramatic thriller even though, just as in the re-telling of the loss of FDR, we already knew the outcome.