April 22, 2008 -
Politics, as the saying goes, makes strange bedfellows.And there could be none stranger than seeing Hillary Clinton, who has long decried violence in video games, cozying up to the pro wrestling crowd with a tongue-in-cheek campaign promise that, if elected, she will deliver "the people's elbow" when things get rough.
Clinton, Barack Obama and John McCain all appeared in taped WWE promos last night. Obama seemed uncomfortable, cracking only a "Do you smell what Barack is cookin'?" joke toward the end of his remarks.
Clinton's video was more enjoyable, if for no other reason than because it was such a departure from her normally aloof public persona. But, "Call me Hillrod?" A bit much...
John McCain's performance was funny ...and a little scary:
You want to pull out of Iraq? Well I say, no surrender... I'm gonna introduce Osama bin Laden to The Undertaker... [Americans] watch WWE because wrestling is about celebrating our freedom...
Watching these videos brings a few video game-related points to mind:
First, will we ever see major candidates making official appearances within a video game, or even at a video game event?
Second, why is WWE, with its real-life violence, steroid abuse issues, and hyper-sexualized "diva" wrestlers an acceptable venue for presidential candidates while video games are, apparently, not?
Finally, if one of these candidates goes after video game violence in the future, whether as president or as a member of the Senate, they need to be reminded of their political pandering to the wrestling audience.
Comments
Video games are obviously not fake. Everyone knows it. Politicians don't want to be seen having anything to do with evil Satan-spawn, other than to denounce it.
On a more serious note:
"You want to pull out of Iraq? Well I say, no surrender… I’m gonna introduce Osama bin Laden to The Undertaker…"
Are those two lines intended to be related? Admittedly, I haven't been following this stuff as closely as I probably should have, but I've never had any reason to believe that bin Laden was in Iraq.
Thank you, I came here to do that and you beat me to it.
*speechless*
Because wrestling isn't popular to protest, kids would never try wrestling moves in real life.
Oh, wait...
What, the, FUCK?!
Crude language aside, Im with you, they try any crud with the Industry, the industry should just pull this out and say. "You were saying what Mr/Mrs. Hippocrite?"
Yeah, one of the DUMBER things they did.
What...
the...
fuck!
I can't speak to Obama's and McCain's performances, but Hillary came across horribly. (And I'm not saying that as someone who just doesn't like her). She was stiff and her wrestling analogies about her policies were just downright rotten. Poorly written and bad delivery.
I was in an IRC channel last night where half the people there were saying McCain should slap himself for deadpanning and absolutely slaughtering lines last night. McCainiacs? Hulk Hogan probably did a back flip.
----
Papa Midnight
I hope so. We need reporters that can ask the tough questions.
Oh well, it could have been worse...
E.g.
Hillary in a diva outfit :o
or listen to more ;)
Actually, appearing in a game would be awesome for their campaign. In GTA4, what if Lazlo interviews Obama on Chatterbox? I'd still SO play Clinton's COD, if it came out!
I would like to see if Hillary ever made any comments about wrestling's effect on the children in the last decades- I wouldn't be suprised if she was against it at one point.
My vote will go to the candidate who takes an RKO or Stone Cold Stunner...
I can't believe you guys vote for these people...
The way they advertise themselves is weird... crikey.
Allthough I would like to beat the s"it out of Gordon Brown in the ring.
If it makes you feel better, when our system is working properly, they can't get anything done.
Odd, that McCain used thelins of a guy support one of his chief rivals. But seriously, this is strikes me as no different that Rock the Vote.
Although GP raises a good point about the seeming turnabout in using a violent media to get out the message, I don't appreciate the editorializing on this article. In fact, I'd add an "editorial" tag to the headline. Your critique of the videos are definitely one man's interpretation, as I could just as easily say Barack was the most dignified, Hillary was showing the culmination of her slow growth into a more engaging persona, and McCain was displaying his unique hawkish style and a youthful exuberance that belies his age. None of my interpretations are necessarily true, but neither are GP's. Both interpretations of the videos seem a little - opinionated - eh?
~~All Knowledge is Worth Having~~
Why is it acceptable for Hillary to make a campaign video that parodies the last episode of The Sopranos, a show with emphasis on violence, drugs, profanity, sexuality, and heavy reliance on ethnic stereotypes, while video games like GTA that do the exact same thing are lambasted?
I suspect its because politicians are all pandering hypocrites who tell lies for a living. Kind of like actors or fake wrestlers, only they also get to make laws.
You suspect? I believe this has been established aeons ago. Somehow I kinda saw this happening its kinda like politicians have a daily quota of bullshit they need to fulfill.
...
Nail on the head my friend.
I thought Obama's video came across as better, Clinton's seemed more like she's never seen the WWE in a her life. I was rather disappointed in the "match," they could have done more zanny stuff with this match up.
Someone mentioned McCain's seemed like a PSA, makes sense since he wasn't "in" the fight, might as well get in "go vote" message. And McCain coming across as crazy? Never ;)
Why we don´t put all of them in a spaceship and send them toward the sun or a black hole?
The industry is disturbing though. Guys don't get paid much, if anything, until they're hugely succesful. When they do get that success, they're on the road 250 days out of the year and exposed to ridiculous treatment, including working with really serious injuries. For those that saw the now infamous Hell in a Cell match between Undertaker and Mankind, appreciate the fact that Undertaker was working with a broken foot at the time.
Steroids and other drugs run rampant, and no one seems to care. For an industry so underregulated, I always find it amusing that presidential candidates show up. I would love to see them actually take an interest, like they did with Baseball. If they would, maybe our Eddie Guererros (death from heart attack, possibly related to former drug use), Curt Hennings (steroids and cocaine) and Chris Benoits (serious brain injuries).
This is funny.The hypocrisy is hilarious!
Like it or not, there are Americans... intelligent Americans... who actually enjoy wrestling. I do not happen to be one of them (intelligent Americans, I mean ;) ). I don't enjoy wrestling, but I know many who do.
With that said, there had been a movement over the past few adminitstrations to reach out to those people who don't vote with an attempt at generational gap jumping called Rock The Vote, which wrestling is a part of.
What's funny is the out-of-touch representation from every political figure within venues such as this prove, at least to me, why there's little voter turnout within the US, even for president.
It's like the South Park analogy (funny how everything goes back to South Park): voting will always mean chosing between a turd sandwich and a giant douche.
It's BAD if it's interactive though!!!
This has been one of the most abysmal elections ever.
It's my understanding that the WWE was an acceptable venue due to their "Smackdown Your Vote" voter registration campaign to increase youth voting. In 2004, they had voter registration tables at every event. From a Google search, they teamed up with Rock the Vote, League of Women Voters, Harvard's Institute of Politics, and National Association of Secretaries of State. Strange bedfellows, but it has results and an audience of several million youth voters that the candidates can't really afford to ignore.
So there you go. If the ECA were to make a push to increase voter rolls by several million gamers with mass-media exposure, they could probably also get the candidates to interact with them, too.
So, to the candidates for presidency I ask you this. Why do you think its alright for you to use Pro Wrestling as self endorsements when is it very known that kids mimic this from what they see on TV. When you say video games do the same thing?
That is all from me.
Fangamer
Its a shame the Dead movies have been berated to death for casual interests, it would be nice to see a new DEAD flick with the social commentary update for todays substandards.....
Outside of the fact that this quote... is just so... perfectly f$&*ing stupid... It also seems to imply a connection between the Iraq War and Osama. /boggle
@ Ragnaar
Thanks for reminding me of that episode. =D
If we start going down the "Wrestling causes kids to imitate it" route, we have to go down the videogame route too.
As far as the most mimicked TV sport. Robert, I can assure you that there are more kids playing football in high school than imitating pro wrestling.
I'm not saying we go down that route. I'm just the hypocrisy of using violent, sometimes sexist, sometimes bloody sport as a political endorsement.
You saw the other stories, right?
They are already going down the "video game cause kids to imitate it" route, fair's fair. If they don't want to be hypocrites, then the candidates would be consistent with their stance. They aren't.
Zing!