‘Boogie Man’
On the surface, Lee Atwater, the legendary Republican campaign operative, might sound like a strange topic for a documentary in 2008. After all, Atwater died in 1991, still flush with the success of electing George H.W. Bush.
Not at all, said Stefan Forbes, the director of the new Atwater documentary, “Boogie Man”. “We’re living in Lee Atwater’s world,” he told Yeas & Nays. “He could tell you that up was down and you would like it. … He may be dead, but his playbook has been winning election after election.”
Why? Because, he said, “Democrats don’t understand the Atwater playbook. All they see is the dirty tricks. That’s what he wanted them to see. He put them out there to distract [Democrats] that he was taking away their manhood, he was taking the flag away from them, he was taking God away. He even took vegetables away from them. They’re the party of arugula.”
He added that the parallels between Bush-Dukakis and McCain-Obama are “stunning.” After all, “McCain, a guy with seven houses, is running as a man of the people. … Sarah Palin is right out of the Atwater playbook.”
Forbes said he was initially attracted to the “drama of the story. [Plus] we love a gangster, we love a hustler.”
“I didn’t want to make a Michael Moore movie. I wanted Lee’s buddies to tell me about him. These are the guys who changed American politics, dancing in the end zone.”
Indeed, some of those buddies will be on hand with Forbes at the Landmark E Street Cinema on Saturday night when the film opens.
