posted 2007/02/25 at 18:39
Ah yes, it's Oscar night, and I still have yet to get over those two painful snubs from so long ago: Final Fantasy: the Spirits Within not getting nominated for any animation awards because of course the award just had to go to yet another piece of Disney Dhrek, and more importantly, Björk not even getting nominated for Best Actress after blowing everyone else out of the water in Dancer in the Dark because everyone felt sorry for not giving the award to Julia Roberts for Pretty Woman so long ago. Do not even get me started on how much I hate all the "swan dress lol" cracks Björk still gets to this day and how Hollywood people wouldn't know true creativity if it bit them on their surgically-enhanced asses. Needless to say, I won't be tuning in to the show, as usual.
Tangentially, however, this brings up an interesting point I've been discussing with someone this past week. Looking ahead to next year's Presidential election, if Hillary Clinton gets the Democratic nomination, then there's a chance that enough left-wingers could be sick and tired of the Democrats' centrism that the Green Party might be able to make another run at getting at least 5% of the popular vote nationally, thus ensuring federal funds for the 2012 election. (Scary thought: that's the first election I'd be eligible to run for President, too.) The problem is that the Greens don't seem to have anyone with any recognition to run right now. Ralph Nader has name value in spades, but he as a person, more than the Green Party, seems to be carrying the stigma right now for allegedly "spoiling" the election for Gore in 2000, and him being the Green Party candidate might do the party more harm than good in that regard. I thought Peter Camejo would have been the perfect candidate in 2004, given the strong showing he had in the California gubernatorial recall election debates, but after he lost the Green Party nomination and became Ralph Nader's vice-presidential candidate in Nader's independent campaign, Greens might not be so willing to give Camejo a second chance, plus any name recognition he might have had from the recall election has long since faded.
How does this relate to my Oscar diatribe from earlier? Well, remember the role Julia Roberts so undeservedly won that Best Actress Oscar for: Erin Brockovich. Brockovich was the vice-presidential candidate for Nader in his 1996 presidential campaign, and through the film that bears her name, Brockovich has a certain measure of fame that might give her the mainstream appeal that would likely be necessary to get 5% of the vote next year. Needless to say I don't know that Brockovich would necessarily be the person I'd want running as the Green Party candidate for President (I still wish Dennis Kucinich would change party affiliations given how much closer he is to the Greens than the Democrats on countless issues), but it's something to think about for next year, anyway.
copyright © 2008 Sean Shannon