Tyler: Jerry, last time around you and I took a look at Primary Colors, a scarcely-fictionalized account of Bill Clinton’s 1992 campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination.  John Travolta was our Bill, Emma Thompson our Hillary.  That movie has its merits and gave us occasion to discuss some of our feelings about the Clintons proper.  Case closed, right?

Not quite.  In 1993, the legendary documentarian D.A. Pennebaker and collaborator Chris Hegedus released an on-the-ground, in-the-fray account of the actual Clinton campaign, built from footage recorded from the New Hampshire primary to election night, no talking heads, no narrators.  The film is called The War Room, and it’s what we’re here to discuss today.

It’s incredible.  Even as a liberal, I do not favor the Clintons.  But, the same easy heart in me that fell for Travolta emulating Bill, swooned all the more at footage of the actual candidate, the self-declared “comeback kid,” the outsider from Hope, the master, master politician.  He’s just so captivating.  You don’t want to believe what Bill Clinton promises—you do believe it.

Bill is introduced indelibly in War Room, and from there floats in and out of the visual narrative, never out of thought, forever inspiring devotion.

He moves everybody he meets.  It’s remarkable.  The “unconventional” campaign staff, led by George Stephanopoulos and James Carville, are deep in it, true believers.

Jerry: Absolutely – you get a sense from the very beginning just how invested the campaign staff is in their work and in the candidate. Though Clinton himself isn’t on screen much, he’s a constant presence, and when we do see him, whether it’s grabbing a bite to eat with the staff or shaking hands while working a line of well-wishers, you feel the charisma and folksy charm for which he is so famous.

I was definitely thinking about Primary Colors while watching this, but I appreciated with this something that we didn’t get from the fictionalized movie. 1992 seems like a completely different time from the modern day. The intro with all of the campaign signs seemed so quaint. It’s hard to believe that’s what primary campaigning used to be.

Tyler: Thirty-two short, long years ago.

Jerry: A few lifetimes, it seems like.

There were definitely some names thrown around that haven’t been talked about for a long time like Paul Tsongas. And yes, I realize that folks may be doing an online search right now to find out who that is.

Tyler: As a nine-year-old, I found poor Paul’s unusual last name amusing.

Jerry: It’s certainly not a last name that you come across that often, at least not here. Maybe it’s like Smith in Massachusetts, who knows?

Tyler: “Hey there!  Bill Tsongas, of the Somerville Tsongases.”

Jerry: It was also interesting to see George Bush on the campaign trail. It’s not how one typically thinks of Bush, and he definitely came across as a bit awkward in the role.

Tyler: His thrown-away “Not so fast” had me deeply amused.  Real shades of Dana Carvey.

Jerry: And the “carping liberal Democrats jumping all over [his] you know what.” Hilarious!

Tyler: And third-stringer Ross Perot!  Talk about a figure from the distant past who has probably proven far more influential than I’ve realized.

Jerry: Oh my gosh, I had forgotten just how wacky he was. The fact that he and his wife were dancing to “Crazy” at a campaign rally. Wow.

Tyler: This of course leads to one of Carville’s finest one-liners, observing that Perot’s campaign had been “…the single most expensive act of masturbation in the history of the world.”

Jerry: Ahh, if only they knew. There were definitely some moments in the film that seem rather amusing/ironic in hindsight. For example, Carville telling the campaign workers early on that “If you win this, then you can knock this shit back forever.”

Tyler: Bush deputy campaign director Mary Matalin dismissing Bill as a “Geraldo” politician.

Jerry: Versus Carville saying that Bush had “the stench of yesterday.” I think that’s one thing that comes across in War Room – just how different the two main candidates were…and how Ross Perot is something else entirely.

Tyler: Do you think Perot has a legacy in this game?

Jerry: I think he helped usher in a modern age of populism. The idea of someone who had never held public office running for president was nearly unheard of at the time, but now, people don’t think twice about it. Indeed, it can provide more of an “outsider” advantage than a governor running for president used to.

Tyler: I had forgotten his misbegotten drop-out drop-in mid-campaign.  A pretty terrific act of self-sabotage.

Jerry: Yeah, that was definitely a bad move on his part. While it’s very unlikely that he ever had a chance of winning, it killed what momentum he had, and his returning to the race came across as opportunistic, just trying to get attention and be a spoiler.

Tyler: Paul Begala with the killer Ross impersonation!

I didn’t pick out Begala until I saw the credits and returned for a second watch.

Paul Begala: CNN’s own Alan Colmes!

Jabbing as I do at Fox News, I find Carville’s shots here at Roger Ailes to be pretty prescient.

Jerry: I didn’t realize that was Begala either, but I did love the impersonation! Little did they know the comedic material they would have to work with from Stockdale in the VP debate.

Tyler: Speaking of VP candidates, Gore comes off like a damn badass in the one speech of his shown here.

Jerry: I know, right? Who knew he had that kind of a pulse?

Tyler: As he leans into the “…UP…DOWN” bit, he gets fired up.

Jerry: If only he would have brought that energy in 2000, things might have been different.

Tyler: Now, we’ve spent some time with the candidates, but we do owe consideration to The War Room’s pair of ostensible stars: Carville and George Stephanopoulos.

They adapt and grow throughout the movie, progressing as it does through several months.  It’s fascinating.

Jerry: Oh man, if anyone can leap off of a screen, it’s James Carville. That man has a larger than life personality.

Tyler: He’s a wonderful watch.  For all his natural ability, he knows he’s on camera, and he lives it up accordingly.

I want to hang out with him and Matalin.

The moment the filmmakers capture, surely on the sly, where Carville tells Matalin about his surprise vacation plan for the two of them?  Tremendous.  Adorable.

Jerry: Even though I know it’s been the subject of many stories and even a book they wrote together, their relationship is so fascinating – the fact that they’re on opposing campaigns and are together romantically. I’m like you, I’d like to hang out with them and just see how they interact with one another. I think they’d be a hoot.

Tyler: Oh, absolutely agreed.  She’s a riot in the film.  Giving a reporter hell about his sorry tie, doing a shimmy and singing into a mic between interview takes.

Jerry: And then of course there’s George Stephanopoulos, who the character of Henry in Primary Colors was based off of.

Tyler: Stephanopoulos is a different character altogether.  He’s not quite Carville’s opposite, enjoying the spotlight as he does—by the end of the campaign, that shirt’s unbuttoned to the chest hair, so “Georgie” knows he’s becoming a heartthrob—but he does provide real counterbalance to James’s sometimes-wild ideas.

Jerry: Oh, I saw that move as well, trying to be a tease on the screen. Even though he comes across as idealistic, Stephanopoulos serves as a grounding figure in the campaign, a balance to Carville’s energy.

Tyler: He’s the subject of a remarkable one-shot sequence that both rivets and chills me.

Jerry: The phone call? Oh yeah.

Tyler: No Georgie there.  He’s an operative in action.

Jerry: That scene definitely made it clear that they were political professionals who would do what it took to get their candidate to win, even if it meant keeping certain things from coming out or squashing a few folks in the process.

Tyler: The recording is all-time filmmaking.  Stephanopoulos cruises right through it, playing it beautifully, amping up the intensity when he casually drops the word “scum.”  It’s masterful politicking, perfect protection, and SMDH melancholy.  Our little doe-eyed future author/morning-host is all grows up.

Jerry: It’d better be a Good Morning America, or George will come after you!

Tyler: I think he’s a hell of an onscreen presence in his own right.  He’s excellent at what he does, and I do believe he’s not BSing his accounts of tears, thinking about the end of the campaign.  He does have what Primary Colors calls “TB”: true believerism.

Jerry: That was one thing that was fascinating to me. War Room definitely shows just how exhausting campaigning is. You can feel how drained they all are while still trying to deal with the frenzy of the last campaign push, which I loved juxtaposed with the piano player.

Tyler: I was surprised to hear “Scarlet Begonias” at a late event.

Jerry: I did a double take at that as well!

Tyler: Now, there are some ugly aspects of the campaign that emerge upon even one viewing.

There aren’t many female characters of note in War Room, which I’d absolutely like to address, but the scant few do get a couple moments toward the end—one woman dreamily asking Stephanopoulos how he feels in the wake of certain victory, another woman cursed to handle giving Carville directions to the Arkansas State House.  

Jerry: Yeah, except for Mary Matalin, The War Room definitely feels very male-dominated. Even Hillary is sidelined in this one. You see her numerous times, but I don’t think she actually spoke once in the film.

Which, of course, speaks to the then versus now dichotomy of watching this film in the present day. Even rewatching some episodes of West Wing, you get vibes of the testosterone-filled atmosphere that American politics has been.

Tyler: You see the back of Hillary’s head as she introduces herself to a citizen very early in the film, and she introduces hoarse Bill a few days before Election Day.  Now, this could be a filmmaking choice.  But it does underscore how quiet a voice women had in the final results when even a woman as prominent as Hillary Clinton is largely sidelined as the prospective First Lady.

There’s even less representation of color in the war room itself.

Not a lot of diversity in the crowd in Little Rock, which I suppose may be a demographic issue.

Jerry: It definitely speaks to the legacy of inequality that continues on to this day, especially in a place like Little Rock in the deep South. For so long, people of color were kept out of the halls of power. Even though Clinton campaigned as a progressive, that legacy is still there and apparent in the film in terms of who ends up in the war room and who isn’t represented there.

One other thing I noticed in the campaign war room – was it just me, or was there a lot of beer and alcohol all over the place?

Tyler: At one point they’re cracking through a case of Budweiser, and later someone produces a bottle of high-dollar early-‘60s-aged whiskey that’s offered for sniffing to Carville, who promptly absconds with the booze for a drink.

Jerry: Though I did get a chuckle at Carville’s quip that “I ain’t drinkin’ no Busch beer, gimme a Budweiser,” at times, I was getting real frat house vibes.

Tyler: Such a clown, even at a restaurant.  That server wasn’t having it.

Jerry: No, absolutely not. I was just waiting for a can of Budweiser to come flying across the screen aimed square at his head.

Tyler: After all of this, all of these irresistible characters, however, my bottom line is Bill.  We believe in and believe him.  But he’s a calculating predator.  The movie doesn’t necessarily shy away from this, as Gennifer Flowers features prominently quite early.  But she is dismissed and essentially forgotten, really, because she sold her story to a grocery-line tabloid.

Not that such a thing would make a difference in today’s politics—from a Republican, anyway—but I can’t abide it.  Stephanopoulos’s steely phone call makes very quick note of allegations of an illegitimate child with a Black mother.  Such a development is featured very prominently in, again, Primary Colors, but here, it’s a brushstroke.  A big bright clashing brushstroke.

Monica Lewinsky’s exploitation and disposal on their own are reasons enough to dismiss the man outright.

But we love him!  I want him off the scene, but I watch him onscreen and I’m just, blown away.  He really was a natural.

Jerry: When I finished up the movie, I was left with the question of how I should feel about it. I remember Clinton’s 92 victory and the excitement around it, and we definitely see that in the film. The 90s are still seen as a boom time and, in some ways, a more innocent time in a pre-9/11 world.

But. You also see this undercurrent of bad things happening, and someone not being held to account for his misdeeds even when they are brought to the light of day. Instead, he’s elected president. As the saying goes, plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose (the more things change, the more they stay the same).

Tyler: Jerry.  Where we can we find you?

Jerry: My podcast is the Presidencies of the United States and can be found on all of the major podcast platforms – Apple, Spotify, etc., etc. – or you can go to my website, presidenciespodcast.com, to find all of the episodes released to date as well as links to more information on all of the US presidents. I’m also available on social media – I’m on Facebook, Bluesky, and Mastodon as presidencies, on the formerly known as Twitter at presidencies89, and on Instagram and Threads as presidenciespodcast.

As always, thank you so much for having me on, Tyler, and for a wonderful conversation!

Tyler: For certain, Jerry.  I’m betting that, moreso than me, you still believe in a place called hope.

Jerry: I sure do! Let me pull out my road atlas from 1992, and I can show you right where it is.

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