Lights, camera, action: Romney fights Hollywood's take on big business

[Geee]

TheHill:

The template of a greedy, heartless businessman who wants to buy votes has a long tradition in movies, books, and television.

And with Mitt Romney’s business background a prominent part of his presidential campaign, any pop cultural reference combining business and politics is almost immediately seen as commentary of the presumptive GOP nominee.

 

 

Take, for example, last Thursday when Leslie Knope (played by Amy Poehler) — the heroine of the hit NBC sitcom “Parks and Recreation” — squared off for a fictitious city council debate with a rich, out-of-touch businessman who threatened to ship jobs overseas unless he got his way.

“I want to run this town like a business,” Bobby Newport (played by Paul Rudd), said to the constituents of Pawnee, Indiana. “My opponent, Leslie Knope, has an anti-business agenda.”

When it was Knope’s turn, she shot back: “Corporations are not allowed to dictate what a city needs. The power belongs to the people.”

She then added: “Bobby Newport and his daddy would like you to think it belongs to them.”

It’s a prominent example of how businessmen are portrayed in the modern era, examples of which are also seen in films like “Wall Street,” “Boiler Room,” and “Glengarry Glen Ross.”

And Romney is not only countering Hollywood’s portrayal of big business, he’s running against a president with pop cultural appeal.

Conservatives, then, are already bracing for a season of relentless attacks on the former Massachusetts governor for his wealth and business background. Their thinking? If Hollywood liberals already like mocking rich capitalists, how much more fun will they have when one is running for president — and against a president who has their support.

If the barrage of attacks is a fait accompli, the question for Romney, then, is how to overcome it. There are a couple avenues for him to choose. He could circumvent the jokes by joining in on them, he could play it straight and embrace his financial success, or he could simply ignore it.