This season we have two of the nation’s most beloved Presidents hitting the big screen. First, Daniel Day-Lewis as the brilliant and beloved, gone too soon President Lincoln in Steven Spielberg’s upcoming Lincoln, then Bill Murray as a President so beloved he served 16 years in the White House, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and finally, Robin Williams as Dwight D. Eisenhower in The Butler, which won’t be released until next year.
The Lee Daniels film, slated for release in 2013, also stars John Cusack as Nixon, James Marsden as Kennedy,
Liev Schreiber as Lyndon B. Johnson, Jane Fonda as Nancy Reagan, Melissa Leo as Mamie Eisenhower, and the star of the film, the sure to be nominee, Forest Whitaker as Eugene Allen, who served the White House as butler through eight US Presidents. Allen died at age 90 but while his wife of 65 years was still alive, they were both excited that they could vote for the first black President. The wife died before the election but Allen went on to vote and to see Obama inaugurated. From a Washington Post story, “Afterward, Mr. Allen, who had been living quietly in a simple house off Georgia Avenue NW in the District, experienced a fame that he had only witnessed beforehand. He received a VIP invitation to Obama’s swearing-in, where a Marine guard escorted him to his seat. Eyes watering, he watched the first black man take the oath of office of the presidency.”
I don’t what the Republicans want you to believe about Obama. I don’t care how many ugly Americans continue to rear their hideous backwoods philosophies for all to see, this was a significant moment in our history and remains as such. Those fanatics are lucky to be living through it.
