The Return of the War Room

I have been under the weather lately and did not realize until I read the New York Times yesterday that the directors of the War Room have made a follow up.  Unfortunately, I do not have the Sundance Channel at home so I did not watch it. But we talked about the documentary from 1992 in class a few weeks ago, and just as the War Room is a must see, I expect The Return of the War Room to be.

 

The directors Chris Hegedus and D. A. Pennebaker have interviewed the major players in the Clinton campaign in 1992; James Carville, George Stephanopoulos, Paul Begala and many more. The War Room made the players behind the scene famous – and I guess sometimes a bit more famous than their candidate. Think about Karl Rove! 

 

The War Room captures the notion of “— let no attack go unanswered, let no opportunity go unexploited — is common now. But in 1993, when “The War Room” was nominated for an Academy Award, a rapid-response operation was still an exotic concept.” I cannot remember the exact numbers that Paul mentioned in class. But in 1992, the rapid response reacted maybe 16 times a day, today a campaign responds 600 times to attacks. What a change in the war room. But watching some of the clips on YouTube, I realize that a lot of things about campaigning have not changed – just like Caryn James writes about in the Huffington Post after watching the new film.

 

This entry has also been posted on https://digitalcommons.georgetown.edu/blogs/mppr-940-fall2008/