Europe for Kerry

While it would be a fine thing if I could sit around all day, reading and pontificating, eating and sleeping, reality strikes about four times a year. That is when the television industry relocates to the South of France, allegedly to hold a "market," during which we all meet and talk, and decide what all of the rest of you will be watching for the next few months and years. Well, not exactly.

Truthfully, most of the really important decisions, and people, have not made an appearance in Cannes for years. The really big network business is conducted elsewhere. The stars, if you see any at all, are here because the Cannes Film Festival starts about a week after this market ends (so they are here getting ready to attend that), and the really big network executives have better things to do than rub shoulders with the little people and independent producers that really do the work of television. So they stay home. But the rest of us get to relax, get together, and schmooze for a week. Television is a funny business, not unlike the movie business, where every social occasion is considered a business occasion, and there are no days, or even hours, off.

This post is not about my struggle for the legal tender, though. It is about the real support for JFKerry. His voters. They are, after all, Europeans. He was not really lying when he said that foreign leaders were in favor of his candidacy. He just meant foreign leaders of little companies, like taxi drivers, and waiters, not to mention television people, like the ones who are here attending MIP. They are rabidly opposed to a second Bush term. They hate Bush even more than our home-grown Lefties. And with better reason.

At the end of World War Two, America was in position to declare itself the leader of a global empire. With the world's largest standing army, and the only nuclear weapons on the planet, many people here in Europe actually expected us to do exactly that. Many believe that, if Truman had not taken over for FDR, we would have. They really do not understand Americans, so their only point of reference was to look inward. And declaring a global empire, with themselves as the sole hegemon, is exactly what THEY would have done. Many still do not understand why we did not do that. AND, they believe that George W. Bush is about to attempt the same thing.

Anyway, that's what I keep hearing. Everywhere I go in France lately, the same refrain is being sung. Bush this, Bush that, but mainly that Bush wants to take over the world. But the really funny thing is that they believe he could. They have this love-hate thing going on about us. They are so jealous of us. That jealousy is the basis of their hatred. When we were led by harmless men like Carter or Clinton, or even Bush 41, they liked us. We were soooo easy to push around. Reagan, I don't know, since I was not travelling to Europe during those years, and there clearly is no reference to look to for this kind of analysis, as I am the only one reporting on this phenomenon. But, like a lot of my blogging, and like it says in the fairy tale, when the Emperor has no clothes, it takes a special type of asshole to speak up about it. Most of the rest of us don't even notice. Or they are afraid to speak up. But I am not afraid. But I am pretty much alone. In fact, if my own perception accurately reflects the truth, I am the only conservative in the Television Industry. So, I've got an idea. Maybe we can arrange to have another market on election day. Then Kerry's supporters can miss the vote.