By Jim Shea
Around 12 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 3, presidential candidate Senator John Kerry, D-Mass, officially announced his concession from the presidential election. With Kerry’s concession, this marked the end of what had to be the most emotional and dramatic presidential election seen in such a long time. Surely Democrats and Kerry supporters are disappointed Kerry did not win the race for the White House, but no one seems to be taking this news harder than film director Michael Moore.
Just shortly after Kerry made his concession speech, all of the content from Michael Moore’s official Web site was removed, except for a link to sign up for his mailing list, a list of all the soldiers who died in Iraq, and a collage of President George W. Bush composed of pictures of all the soldiers who have died in the war against Iraq. The following day, everything was back to normal on www.michaelmoore.com, along with a picture that shows a map of North America where the Democratic-voting states are a part of “United States of Canada,” while the Republican-voting states are part of “Jesusland.”
People are already asking, “Did all of Moore’s efforts to get Bush out of office go down in vain?” The answer: yes and no. True, Moore is not the biggest fan of George W. Bush as seen in his latest film, Fahrenheit 9/11, but there was no coincidence that Moore released Fahrenheit 9/11 months prior to Election Day. Fahrenheit 9/11 was not the first film where Moore criticized President Bush-in 2002, Moore released the Oscar-winning Bowling For Columbine. This documentary film focused on gun control and how President Bush handled it. Fahrenheit 9/11, on the other hand, takes a bigger stab at President Bush as the movie itself criticizes the entire Bush administration since Day One.
Speaking of which, Moore faced a good deal of controversy when he was trying to release Fahrenheit 9/11. For starters, Mirimax was originally going to distribute the film for Moore until the film company dropped distribution rights because the film was just not suitable to Mirimax. After Fahrenheit 9/11 was finally released in theaters, Moore faced another challenge just trying to get his movie on pay-per-view. Cable providers refused to air the film just days before the election.
George W. Bush and Michael Moore have never met face-to-face to try to resolve their issues, but Moore did meet presidential “hopeful” Ralph Nader on “Real Time With Bill Maher,” as he pleaded along with host Bill Maher to drop out of the race. There have been a few people who say Ralph Nader had a direct effect on the votes, but Moore’s plead to Nader on “Real Time With Bill Maher” made it clear that Democrats were worried about Nader all along.
Despite all this, he has taken a lot of time and effort in persuading people to register to vote, which other celebrities have done so as well, including P. Diddy’s “Vote Or Die” campaign. The massive voter turnout did not go the way Moore wanted it to be, but with more voters this time around, some could say that a repeat of Election 2000 was successfully avoided.
“Objectivity” is a word that rarely comes to mind when Michael Moore is talking about George W. Bush, but Moore has been successful in leaving his mark on American politics-although he’s Canadian. While Moore may be regrouping his strategy in order to “get Bush out of office,” he is currently analyzing this election to see what was done right and what was done wrong. One thing is for certain-depending on whom the Republican nominee will be running for president in 2008, Moore will find a new target and a new way to persuade voters.
Is the reign of controversial director Michael Moore over now that Bush was re-elected? (Image courtesy fullframefest.org)