For anyone who watched the final season of The West Wing a few years back, this election is starting to look eerily similar. In the fictional world of The West Wing, the Republicans nominated a grumpy, moderate Republican who was disliked by his own base but had the potential to win 50 states thanks to his mainstream positions. The Democrats went through a grueling primary season, ended up at the convention without a nominee and finally chose a relatively inexperienced, solidly liberal, non-white congressman who was extremely good at giving inspiring, unifying speeches.

John McCain as Arnold Vinick. Barack Obama as Matt Santos. Life is imitating network television. No wonder this has been such a captivating election.

Scanning the DirectTV guide last night I decided to switch on the Miss American pageant just in time for the winnowing down to the final 10 contestants. As one who despises Survivor and other so-called “reality” shows I was unpleasantly surprised to see the six young ladies being eliminated called out and told goodbye American Idol style. (more…)

Tonight would have seen the exciting two hour opening episode of 24. on Fox. Alas, the writers strike has delayed and possibly killed the season altogether with no guarantee that they will ever be able to get everyone back together and pretend to save America, vanquish her enemies, and not go to the bathroom for 24 hours.

To quote that famous philosopher and American hero Bugs Bunny, “What a revoltin’ development.” For the last three years I have immersed myself in the doings of Jack and Co. as few have, all to bring you, my loyal readers a summary of their adventures delivered with my signature snark and original allusions to history and literature. For three years, I took this show way too seriously, committing myself to late nights and very early mornings just so I could satisfy the appetite of many of you for reliving the episode and most importantly, speculating on what was to come next.

To read more, visit my site:

The AP reports that The Big Donor Show, which was broadcasted yesterday evening, was a hoax. It seems that the producers believe that, because it was a hoax, anger and disgust were not justified.

Well, sorry, but I disagree. As Ed Morrissey explains:

I’m not sure which scenario was worse, but both are pretty repulsive and exploitative. The producers claim that they wanted to make a statement about the lack of organs for transplant patients, and at least the topic got some attention. However, they used real ESRD patients for the roles of the contestants, which seems rather cruel, considering that they had to pretend to abase themselves to seem the most pathetic — and the most worthy — of the transplant.

Gaius adds

This is a particularly cruel manipulation of people. Even though the participants were in on the hoax, the public was not. They were manipulated by ethically challenged con-artists with a particularly foul “end justifies the means” outlook.

One thing that has to be said, it has created an international firestorm and people are, suddenly, talking about this problem: not just in the Netherlands, but also in, say, America. As such, I guess that the show has achieved something positive. The downside: I do not think it will last (people will simply move on) and, well, I agree with what Ed wrote: joke or not, it is (still) pretty offensive.