Last week ABC announced it was yanking Commander in Chief, the
highly-touted series about the first American female president. It had
fallen to No. 64 in the Nielsen ratings, so taking the show off
life-support was only a matter of time.
Commander in Chief was not a TV series in the usual sense. Rather it was
a nationally-televised focus group, designed to test out issues, talking
points, and applause lines for Hillary Clinton's stealth presidential
campaign.
The lead script writer was Steve Cohen, whose ties to the Clinton family
go back to 1991. After a stint in president Bill Clinton's press office,
Mr. Cohen was named Hillary's deputy communications director, a position
he held for over three years.
Cohen is an unabashed booster of Mrs. Clinton's presidential hopes. "I
have no doubt she is capable, qualified, and ready to be the president
of the United States should she choose to run," Cohen once said. Just in
case anyone missed the point, Cohen brazenly referenced HRC numerous
times on the program.
Last October Cohen was joined by Capricia Marshall, who had worked as
Mrs. Clinton's White House social secretary. Throughout the period that
Commander in Chief was being aired, Marshall
lunched
with Hillary on a regular basis.
So what campaign themes did Commander in Chief test out?
First, Mr. Cohen cast president Mackenzie Allen as a political
independent, a clear signal that Hillary will package herself as not
beholden to "politics-as-usual." Smart move.
Next, Cohen tried out lines calculated to energize the female
electorate. In one episode, the vice president refers to a Nigerian
woman sentenced to death for adultery because she was "a woman who
couldn't keep her legs together."
That lesson comes straight from the Democratic playbook: No problem if
you demean and insult your constituency, just so long as you succeed in
turning out the vote on Election Day.
Third, Cohen portrayed Mackenzie Allen as a statesman motivated by
principle, not political expediency. Another good move, since everyone
knows male politicos will say anything to get elected, and even write
books designed to whitewash their political past.
Above all, Allen was depicted as under constant siege from the vast
right-wing conspiracy. When her teleprompter goes on the fritz, we all
suspect the conservative Speaker of the House is the culprit. In another
episode, Allen's husband is accused of groping an intern. Wonder where
Cohen got that crazy idea?
There was really no need for Cohen to try out the
woman-as-perpetual-victim storyline. Every Democratic hack knows that
catering to chivalrous men and angry women is a slam-dunk political
strategy.
Here's vintage Hillary at a
March
6 fund-raiser: "When you run as a
Democrat, and in particular when you run as a Democratic woman, whether
you're running at the local, state, or national level, it's likely
you're going to draw some unfriendly fire," Hillary explained. "If they
do that, wear it as a badge of honor, because you know what? There are
lots of things that we should be angry and outraged about these days."
That line comes straight out of Feminist Agitprop 101:
- Female (but never male) politicians will be unfairly attacked.
- The patriarchal threat lurks everywhere ("at the local, state, or
national level")
- Consider the attack as an affirmation of your radical social agenda
("wear it as a badge of honor")
- Channel your outrage into ever-greater political activism.
In the end, what doomed Commander in Chief was the producers' inability
to reconcile Mackenzie Allen's multiple roles. In one scene, she was
pondering the fate of the Free World. A minute later, Allen was the
beleaguered victim of men's chauvinistic designs. In the third scene,
she was Mommy's little girl.
Hillary Clinton has assembled an impressive coterie of hand-holders and
ring-kissers in the mass media: Katie Couric at CBS News, the editors at
the New York Times, the Spin Sisters who run the women's magazines, and
the feminist reporters who populate the old media.
Even Geena Davis, the actress who portrayed Mackenzie Allen, has been
willing to step out of her thespian role to push for the HRC presidency.
"So many countries have had a female head of state before us, so it is
certainly time," she hectored a crowd at the United Nations Delegates
Dining Room last week.
No doubt Steve Cohen had noble intentions when he sat down to write the
scripts for CIC. But in the end, Commander in Chief came across as a
stinging parody of a politician who is willing to co-opt even a TV
entertainment program in her quest for ultimate political power.
Carey Roberts has
been published frequently in the Washington Times, Townhall.com,
LewRockwell.com, ifeminists.net, Intellectual Conservative, and
elsewhere. He is a staff reporter for the New Media Alliance.
