Critic in Chief: Tricky Dickie joins the White House
Note: Commander in Chief — fact based or totally fictional? Each Wednesday, our White House correspondent will cast a critical eye at the previous night's episode of the popular new ABC drama starring Geena Davis as that very nice President Mackenzie Allen and Donald Sutherland as that not-so-nice Speaker of the House Nathan Templeton. Walsh has covered the White House for U.S. News since 1986.
Viewers might remember him from NYPD Blue, the hit cop show, when he played a tough but vulnerable young newcomer in the fantasy police precinct. Now actor Mark-Paul Gosselaar is doing the same thing for fantasy female President Mac Allen on Commander in Chief.
Actually, Gosselaar's hotshot political consultant, called Richard "Dickie" McDonald on the show, seems modeled at least in part on Dick Morris, the real-life electoral guru of Bill Clinton during his first term. Morris was brought in to improve Clinton's job-approval ratings after a rocky start and to get him re-elected. Those are the same reasons Dickie has been recruited on the current show.
Viewers might find some of his advice quite cynical, but basically, Dickie is behaving just like a political consultant. At one point, he asks the president if she intends to run for her job (in case you're new to the show, she was the veep and then the president died). Allen isn't sure, but the new guy is.
No one will take her seriously, he announces, unless they think she's running, because otherwise she would be a lame duck. So when the press asks her what's up at her weekly news conference, she leaves open the possibility that she'll be a candidate.
Dickie has advice for everyone, as most high-powered political consultants do. He tells the White House press secretary she's doing a good job "vamping" the press over the election issue — cleverly deflecting reporters' questions without saying much. Not only that, but the voters dig her!
"You polled my vamping?" the press secretary asks. "I poll everything," comes the reply.
Which is exactly what Morris did in the real-life White House. He once took an opinion survey on where President Clinton should go on summer vacation. Most Americans said they thought a national park would be appropriate, and that's where Clinton went — to the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone.
Dickie is also into looks. He matter-of-factly tells the press secretary that she could use a makeover, with a sexier hairstyle and better makeup. He refers her to a salon. Next thing you know, she's a spokesbabe. It's reminiscent of Hillary Rodham Clinton's ever-changing hairdo when she was first lady, only Hillary never seemed to be going for the supermodel look.
In addition to hair, the show's writers are focusing on what lies beneath — the conscience. Geena Davis's character is always trying to balance her urge to do the right thing with the pressure to do what's popular or safe, though the crisis of conscience that the writers cooked up is a bit far-fetched. Poor President Allen couldn't decide: Should she sign off on a commission's recommendation to shut "Essex Naval Base" in her home state? True, it's obsolete. But closing it could cost 30,000 jobs. What's a kindhearted president to do? This is a classic case of television phoneus baloneus: No president would be put in such an awkward position. A president usually accepts the commission's suggestions and would not be inclined to cater to a local constituency. And that's what President Allen ultimately decides, after much exaggerated angst: "I'm not going to play favorites from this office even though it is my hometown," she tells reporters.
Consultant Dickie's conclusion: "I think she'll make a helluva candidate."
As for other details on the episode, they definitely ring true.
— Dickie the consultant is forever walking around the White House with a big, goofy-looking badge on a chain around his neck. This really happens. It means he's a temporary employee — not a full-time senior staffer. Those folks wear special pins or, if they are important enough, are recognized on sight by the Secret Service.
— There was an echo of George Herbert Walker Bush. President Allen kept inviting people to share Thanksgiving dinner with her family without consulting her spouse first. In the end, she had a full table. The real-life George H. W. Bush used to invite lots of folks to dinner, even though wife Barbara didn't always appreciate the extra guests.
— Remember that videotape of Speaker Templeton that came into the president's possession earlier this season? The one from 1965 that showed Templeton (Donald Sutherland) as a young man making racist comments? President Allen gave him her original of the video and a copy as a sort of Thanksgiving present. Even the most noble of presidents might not be that noble. But if such a handoff were to happen, there'd always be some White House operative who made a secret copy.
— I appreciated it when the president's mother — a newly introduced character played by Polly Bergen — insisted that she cook Thanksgiving dinner herself, even though the White House kitchen staff seemed eager to do the job ("As long as I'm standing, I'm cooking"). Sounds like my own mother, and maybe like yours, too. But I've never heard of such a thing happening in the White House.