Posted by Amanda Marcotte January 2, 2008 in Asides, Republicans, Assholes
33 Responses to “Which bloodsucker would you pick for your overlord?”
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So, does this mean the Dems can be matched up with the Scoobies? Or are they the villains from a different show, and if so, which one?
Tough call, since none of them are Buffy. Clinton is definitely Willow—powerful, mostly works for good, but has a dark side. Xander lines up with Obama, good-hearted but merely mortal.
Kucinich would be Oz then, a scrappy little dude with a tragic flaw.
Are you sure none of them are Buffy? Edwards strikes me as the cheerleading type.
.end maureen dowd
.begin heavy drinking
Seriously though, of the presumptive frontrunners, I like Edwards the most. Clinton’s policies are still stick in the bullshit “centrist” position in most cases, and she hasn’t shown a lot of leadership or intestinal fortitude to lend her name to progressive issues. I’m increasingly becoming upset with Obama for moving from mushy talk about bipartisanship to adoption of republican talking points and attacks on the left. Edwards seems mostly talk instead of action, but at least he’s saying more or less the right things.
Honestly, I’d much prefer Dodd, Kuncinich or Gravel: people who are actively partisan, solid progressives, and while not perfect, at least doing work on the issues we tralk about here. Unfortunately, no-one in the netroots are willing to risk anything on these three, instead arguing the minutia of Ron Paul’s campaign.
Right now, Edwards is the only one talking about class in a way that’s different than the usual platitudes about a “strong middle class,” so he’s got my vote. Obama’s running an amazingly cynical campaign, and Clinton, well who know’s where the hell she stands.
As for the Repubs. If any one of them gets elected I will seriously think about leaving the country. At a certain point, it becomes clear that you don’t want to be part of the “imagined community” (in Anderson’s wonderful turn) that would consistently elect such willfully ignorant, idiotic, superstitious, hateful people.
Maureen Dowd is shit. She took the same MSM line that Edwards is “angry” and mocked him, because she echoes that beltway Villager sensibility that anyone not on board with high Broderism is a representative of peasants with pitchforks.
I’ve been solidly in the Edwards camp since before Amanda signed on. I’ve met him and I don’t think that “son of a millworker” is campaign stuff. I think it’s a worldview.
I think comparing the Mayor to Romney is quite insulting - to the Mayor.
Seriously, I find the Mayor to be more personable. And for all his flaws, he did really care about Faith.
And I, too, am on board the Edwards train. In fact, I made a contribution this weekend - a first for me (I’ve contributed to congressional campaigns, but never for a presidential contest).
I think that the right is really afraid of an Edwards administration. But I get upset when some fo the so-called progressives pile on:
http://liberalvaluesblog.com/?p=2624
…remarkably cruel to his own allies on occasion…
What’s sad is I don’t see a Giles in the race. Maybe Dodd?
Where’s Giles when you need him?
Thanks for the link!
And of course I’m really happy to see all the Edwards love here.
I find it kind of hard to assign Scooby identities to the Democratic primary field. Clinton’s triangulation, Obama’s consensus politics, and Edwards’ populism don’t really make good analogies to things the good guys do.
But if there’s a Giles figure on the Democratic side, I’d make it Al Gore. Welcome to season 6.
You take that back! I won’t stand for Willow’s name, especially Willow’s dark side to be impugned like this! Clinton’s dark side is consists of obsequiousness as opposed to wrath.
OMG, I love that illustration! Where did it come from?
Eric, that’s the cover of one of the Season 8 comic books.
There’s a new one out today! Yay!
Eric,
Going by the image filename, it comes from a Buffy comic called “The Long Way Home”
syfr, James, thanks!
Yeah, Maureen Dowd and Ann Althouse are cut from much the same cloth: Gossipy schoolkids looking for the next juicy rumor to sling around. This year’s campaign news cycle is some of the most vapid, insulting and useless information I’ve ever heard come out of the punditry. A new low for the chattering airheads that monopolize our public discourse. It’s incredibly dispiriting.
I saw a bumper sticker this morning that said:
“Valdemort Votes Republican”
nothing else to add
. Clinton is definitely Willow—powerful, mostly works for good, but has a dark side.
Oh-oh, Amanda. How long before the wingnutosphere picks up on this and claims that Huma Abedin is Tara?
“But if there’s a Giles figure on the Democratic side, I’d make it Al Gore. Welcome to season 6.”
Agree. Giles/Al is no longer an official Watcher/politician; instead he’s off contemplating other projects. Side Note: is that mini-series Ripper still in the works?
if there’s a Giles figure on the Democratic side, I’d make it Al Gore.
So true. Is “Draft Giles in ‘08″ too obscure for a bumper sticker?
Nah, the Democrats aren’t the scoobies. There are no good guys.
They’re secondaries.
John Edwards is Jonathan, trying to be more than he is
Hilary Clinton is Spike. Used to be a real terror on the liberal side, Now has a chip in her head from her corporate masters
Barak Obama is the Buffybot. Looks like a real Slayer. Isn’t.
Dennis Kuninch is Principal Flutie. Eaten alive by hyenas. Yep.
“That’s the kind of wooly-headed liberal thinking that leads to being eaten.” –principal Snyder.
Joe Biden/Chris Dodd/Mike Gavel/Bill Richardson
All of these are Potentials. Slayerettes. And absolutely interchangeable without any need to feel sorry when they fall out of the picture.
I need to stay out of this thread, as I’m a recent Whedonverse convert and am only up to season 3!!! Willow’s dark side? Lalalalalaa, I can’t hear you!
Willow’s dark side? Lalalalalaa, I can’t hear you!
It comes out of nowhere too. They’re forming battle lines against the BBEG, trying to form a plan, and BOOM, she kills Dumbledore, right in front of Harry.
re: Karpad
…and then she checks into rehab where she will make a teary speech and then be forgiven…
Dude, I was such a Willow fan when she was just a cute geek with spunk, and then when she was growing into herself, but I stopped fangirling her the moment she went evil and messed with Tara’s mind. Willow went /crazy/ with regret and grief after Tara died, not evil, she was that BEFORE.
I think Tara is probably THE most beautiful AND tragic character in Buffyverse. She’s a woman, who grew up kind and wise and strong in spite of her family the pigs of the patriarchy…she’s flawed, she risked everyone’s lives to cover up some other flaw she’s been told she have, BUT, she over comes that. She finds a fellow witch AND a geek to fall in love with.
Then a demi-god messed with her mind.
Then the woman she loves and trust tells her to shut up and messed with her minded
Then she, after coming so far, in spite of all the trouble in her path, is just struck down like that, by someone who thinks of women as things, as a collateral damage no less. Feels like futility.
He had the chip removed! He fought to get his soul back! Doesn’t that mean anything?
Besides, I don’t want to shag Hillary rotten…
I certainly agree that there isn’t really a Buffy amongst the Democrats. How could you really have a Reluctant Chosen One amongst people vying for the presidency?
Hillary Clinton would have to be someone at the Watcher’s Council. Well meaning, but stuck in very Establishment ways.
You take that back! I won’t stand for Willow’s name, especially Willow’s dark side to be impugned like this! Clinton’s dark side is consists of obsequiousness as opposed to wrath.
So - Wesley then.
OPOPONAX LOOK AWAY RIGHT NOW:
Pre baby-stealing, throat slitted, Fred-courting Wesley of course.
I wish I could see Clinton as Willow. Or, any of the Dems as the Scooby Gang. Just. Can’t.
Wait… PIaToR brought up Angel…
ha! Clinton as Illyria.
Yes. That is it. Maybe…
I think Edwards could definitely be the Buffy, in the beginning anyways, Buffy didn’t exactly wake up a hero, she grew into it in Prophecy Girl.
Willow’s “dark side,” so-called, is right there in her character from the beginning. I wouldn’t call it that at all. She’s moral, in that she cares about the consequences of her actions and those of others, but she isn’t ethical–she doesn’t think “the rules” apply to her. From the very beginning, even though she’s socially mousy and terrorized by the Mean Girls led by Cordelia, she’s a successful hacker. I think you’ll find that she changes her grades and stuff without any shame or remorse.
Getting stronger with magic, which she treats pretty much as another form of hacking, just makes it more likely that not following “the rules” (as handed down by people like Giles and Tara, who was apparently trained in some kind of Wiccan lore by her late mother) might indeed have dire consequences, so she gradually learns her own ethics. Which she also had cause to learn when she was a mere hacker, as a couple first/2nd season eps demonstrate.
So-called “Evil Willow” or “Dark Willow” was actually Grieving Willow.
On thread–I really can’t see any Scoobie Gang in the Dems, more’s the pity. Hoping Edwards can indeed be Buffy and that Gore will be Giles.
If only we had a Willow in the running; Hillary is definitely not it. Maybe Hillary is Cordelia?
On the Dark Side–could Ron Paul be The First Evil? Unable to act directly; able to masquerade as anyone good or bad who is dead; popping up in the form of the good dead to spread dissension and demoralization; served by blind minions who see only through mystic runes, their natural eyes having been gouged out; has popped up before as a minor (one ep/Lib candidate ‘88) side theme that later mushrooms into a whole season arc…
As a Christianist Libertarian, he certainly does seem to embody the very heart of what plauges us.
An alternative might be that he’s Warren.
On the Dark Side–could Ron Paul be The First Evil? Unable to act directly; able to masquerade as anyone good or bad who is dead; popping up in the form of the good dead to spread dissension and demoralization; served by blind minions who see only through mystic runes, their natural eyes having been gouged out; has popped up before as a minor (one ep/Lib candidate ‘88) side theme that later mushrooms into a whole season arc…
Harmony?