“Everyone knows that shows like the short-lived Commander In Chief and the longer-lived The West Wing were political Xanax for disappointed Democrats who couldn’t believe they were living through another Bush presidency, and an escape valve for the larger population who were allowed to imagine that crises, both national and global, could be dealt with by a judicious application of cynical asides, stern glances, brief moments of despair and a final, loquacious speech that put everything in perspective. Instead of a neverending, borderless conflict with an enemy whose motivations seem both farcical and implacable, we could achieve weekly closure with each hour-long episode – two supersized hours if the crisis was a biggie.
“Now we have the news that the former commander-in-chief – the closest personal confidant of a possible future president – has had a dubious ethical brainstorm in the adventures of a fictional character on a show whose last couple of seasons have, to be frank, kinda sucked loud. Mr. Clinton thinks we’d be safer with a few more secret agents like Jack Bauer. Well, we’d probably be a lot better off with a president like Lincoln or FDR, but I don’t see anyone like that anywhere on the political landscape, or even on TV.”
