Who is Alexandra Pelosi?

This is a fun little movie with a side of George Bush that you have never seen and I wouldn't have imagined. Alexandra Pelosi was on the press bus with George W. Bush during his first presidential campaign. Her job was to write stories, but she also took a camcorder. She filmed the press core, she filmed Bush and she filmed them interacting. Bush was not President, had no image to protect and no one to protect him.

Of course, you must remember that there is no documentary that doesn't have a point of view. They all use about 10% (and that may be high) of the film they take, so what you see is what makes a point.

However, this film could be enjoyed by Bush supporters and Bush detractors equally, although each group will come away with something different.

Its also an opportunity to learn something about what goes on during those long campaigns....

This is a fascinating and well crafted book about the 2004 Democratic primaries and John Kerry's race. However, the insights apply to all modern campaigns. At first it seemed a little gosspiy and 'New Yorker looking and the world' for me, but as the book continues it develops into an informative and important view of how the media influences our campaigns. And it isn't what you may have thought. This isn't about whether the media is liberal or conservative, but just how its presence affects the process. I wish I had read it before this last presidential campaign.

Don't get me wrong, I liked the gossipy part. Well, sometimes I was skeptical or annoyed. She described the very beginning when the candidates, when those might one day fly Air Force One, have to fly commercial, walking through security with their shoes in their hands just like everyone else. She did give one example of things happening to one man on one day, that was really sad. I have never seen any of those things anywhere, so I was a bit skeptical, it was dramatic, but for a few pages I started doubting what she said. That didn't last long.

Pelosi travels the south interviewing members of the religious right. As is her style, she lets them speak for themselves. While this is not my kind of Christianity, she does this movie in a way that keeps her opinions pretty much out of the picture. I think I have a tendency to project what I think she would think onto the movie, but a careful watching shows that she really doesn't put her ideas into it. You do see her in it, but she is very light handed.

One of her subjects here is the evangelist Ted Haggard who later had a homosexual crisis. Pelosi later does a documentary on him.

I have not seen this movie, but it is on my list.