Promises Made, Promises Kept

And now a word from John McCain — or at least whoever did his YouTube ads in 2008*, which were the best part of his campaign, and kept him even with Obama until he “suspended it” in response to the financial crisis — permanently in retrospect:

It’s hard for a politician to keep their campaign promises.  However, John McCain told America in 2008 that an Obama presidency will bring $4 a gallon prices to the pump.  Just months away from completion of his first term, Obama presides over a national gas average of 3.86 a gallon and that includes states where the average is $4 and above — just as one of McCain’s ads promised.

McCain’s other memorable ad created the early image of Obama as the “World’s Biggest Celebrity,” an image that Obama has long embraced:

And then there was that request from the White House screening room. Mr. Gordon’s reaction? “Completely surreal.”

(When [actor Damien] Lewis sat next to the president at a state dinner last spring, he said Mr. Obama told him, “While Michelle and the two girls go play tennis on Saturday afternoons, I go in the Oval Office, pretend I’m going to work, and then I switch on ‘Homeland.’ ”)

Ms. Danes said: “I think we were all stunned — and a little terrified by that idea. The president knows what we do?”

It’s always fun to watch people with egos the size of the Death Star make self-deprecating remarks; they inadvertently reveal what everybody else suspects about them. During the early 1990s, when Woody Allen was being rocked by the various (self-created) scandals engulfing him, he would say offer “what me worry?” self-deprecating quotes to interviewers along the lines of “Hey, I don’t take directing seriously. I show up to the set at nine, I’m about by five, and then I take in a Knicks game. Lots of guys work harder than I do.”

We know — that’s why your films have sucked since Stardust Memories. And as Geraghty writes in response to The Won, “I hope the president wasn’t scheduled to review intelligence briefings about threats to our embassies and consulates some recent Saturday.”

Update: “President Obama ‘Watched A Lot of Football This Weekend.’” Say what you will about Jimmy Carter, he at least took his job seriously.

* And I’m not just saying that because they ripped me off back then…