Casting 'Clown Car '16, the Movie'

By Matt Taibbi, Rolling Stone

09 September 15

 

Jeff Garlin as Chris Christie, Kirk Cameron as Rick Santorum, Justin Timberlake as Rand Paul — the possibilities are thrilling

tart with the title: Clown Car! may sound like the movie someone will inevitably make about the 2016 presidential campaign, but how about evoking those great Seventies wacky-journey films like Death Race 2000, Vanishing Point or Smokey and the Bandit?

When I raised the question on Twitter, suggestions included All the President's Wanna-Bes, Every Which Way But Left, Cannonball Rug, A Kochwork Orange and the subtly appropriate Hair.

All excellent ideas, and we may have to put the movie name to a separate vote. Right now, though, the more pressing question is this: If someone did make a movie about the 2016 presidential race, who would play the candidates? Wouldn't that be the most thrilling casting job ever?

There was a fiery debate on social media about all of the roles. In the end, though, this is something that has to go to a vote. What we need in this country, after all, is more democracy.

For the time being, we'll just ask people to vote in the comments section below, or tweet responses to me at @mtaibbi.

Without further ado: 

DONALD TRUMP

Donald Trump (as himself)
Gary Busey
Alec Baldwin
Will Ferrell
Gerard Depardieu
Gary Oldman
Val Kilmer
Gene Hackman

The biggest debate is obviously going to be about who gets to play the leading man in the film. Trump probably ought to be the only "as himself" role in the cast. Figuratively speaking, it fits the narrative of the campaign to have him as the only Real Person, surrounded by a bunch of actors.

But there's also something to be said for the idea that Trump lacks the self-awareness to sell the humor of his role. Acting-wise the role clearly should belong to one of Hollywood's interpersonal train-wreck actors, someone you can imagine waking up in bed with a farm animal and a bottle of Southern Comfort.

The first name you think of there is probably Gary Busey, although someone like Gerard Depardieu also makes sense. Alec Baldwin fits from the abject-assholedom angle. And I'm sympathetic to the argument for Will Ferrell as Trump; you could take a Ferrell-as-Trump movie to many interesting places. But is he too PG for the part?

CHRIS CHRISTIE

Kevin James
John Goodman
Delaney Williams
Jeff Garlin
Steve Schirripa
Meat Loaf
Oliver Platt
Jon Favreau 

The Christie role is probably a two-man race, between Mall Cop thespian Kevin James and Jeff Garlin of Curb Your Enthusiasm fame. But there was a lot of sentiment online for casting the affable Delaney Williams, last seen playing the porn-connoisseur homicide sergeant Jay Landsman in The Wire. Meat Loaf is an intriguing idea, especially if Cannonball Rug or whatever the film ends up being called has a musical component – we could have Christie singing his excuse for Bridgegate.

TED CRUZ

French Stewart
Bill Murray
Danny Trejo
Angelica Huston
"Grandpa" Al Lewis
Maxwell Emmet "Pat" Buttram

French Stewart's qualifications here seem impeccable, right down to the distractingly squinty eyes. But Bill Murray would bring out the ham in Ted Cruz (think the "It just doesn't matter" speech, only delivered to Tea Partiers on the night before the UN invasion of Galveston).

But this could also be a breakout role for Danny Trejo, who'd bring grit and street cred to the part – French Stewart isn't leaping through a methane explosion onto a moving Harley to shoot Mitch McConnell with a 12-gauge. Angelica Huston, meanwhile, is also an inspired idea for the role, among other things because it would infuriate Cruz. Curiously, a lot of readers nominated dead actors to play Cruz, including Al Lewis of The Munsters and Pat Buttram, last seen playing bug-eyed Mr. Haney on Green Acres. 

CARLY FIORINA

Kristin Wiig
Peri Gilpin
Meg Ryan
David Bowie
Andy Dick
Christine Baranski

There was overwhelming support for Wiig as Fiorina online, although a few people felt she wasn't loathsome enough. I like the choices of David Bowie and the underrated Christine Baranski, who could simply reprise the role of her sneering party-crashing aristocrat Connie Chasseur from The Ref.

RICK SANTORUM

Kirk Cameron
Steve Carrell
Judge Reinhold
Paul Reubens

There was some sentiment to have Santorum played by Michael Ontkean, the Canadian actor who resembles Santorum and is best known for his deft performance as Ned Braden in the Oscar-snubbed minor league hockey epic Slap Shot. But someone from a civilized place like Vancouver might not be able to grasp the darkness of Rick Santorum.

A Canadian might try to play Santorum's fundamentalist Christian persona as a passive, beatific dreamer, where what you really need here is a secret BDSM freak who gets aroused looking at Know Your Bible illustrations of the crucifixion. Kirk Cameron to me is the obvious choice, although the Foxcatcher version of Steve Carrell is pretty close to being who Rick Santorum really is, right down to his inexplicable belief in his ability to win any contest that exists outside his own mind.

MIKE HUCKABEE

Kevin Spacey
Jon Hamm
Stephen Root
Tom Hanks

Spacey, whose voice is very close to Huckabee's, is an obvious choice, particularly if Huckabee turns out to have a diabolical plan for winning this thing in the end (he gets up and walks into the presidential limo as we notice our coffee cups were made by Kobayashi porcelain). With Hanks, you worry he might take it seriously and screw up the whole movie.

BOBBY JINDAL

Aziz Ansari
Dev Patel
The corpse of Bob Denver
Jack McBrayer

The funniest suggestion I received for the role of Jindal was the empty chair from Clint Eastwood's infamous convention speech. In my mind, if Bob Denver was alive, he'd be a lock.

GEORGE PATAKI

Daniel von Bargen
James Caan
Victor Garber
Stephen Tobolowsky + wig

I realize von Bargen is dead, but the man who nailed the role of lunkheaded Mr. Kruger on Seinfeld would have been perfect for the role of Pataki ("My fellow Americans, our budget this year just passed into the red… or the black… whatever the bad one is"). Excellent instincts by @cptyesterday, who ably picked out the wonderfully nondescript veteran Canadian character actor Victor Garber, but also wondered "if he'd settle for such a small part."

SCOTT WALKER

Chris Parnell
Vincent Kartheiser
Steve Carrell
John Cusack
Michael Sheen

Parnell was the overwhelming choice for this role on Twitter, although in Hollywood they always give the evil-douchebag role to a Brit, so that makes me think Michael Sheen.

JEB BUSH

Ed Begley Jr.
Jason Siegel
Ed Helms
Beau Bridges
Jeffrey Tambor
Chevy Chase
Jane Lynch

Jeb is a tough one. Beau Bridges would bring that less-heralded-brother angst to the role, and he fits facially too. Begley Jr. is the right height, and would also do a great job cowering and peeing himself in Trump's presence. Tambor has the vast experience playing the sad-sack second banana. Both Lynch and another popular choice, Jamie Lee Curtis, are too manly for the role.

MARCO RUBIO

John Leguizamo
Danny Pino
Oscar Isaac
Fred Armisen
Santiago Cabrera

I'm torn here between Fred Armisen, who'd bring a goofy nuance to Rubio, and John Leguizamo, who could really sink his teeth into the psycho-moonbat angle. Pino and Cabrera are closer looks-wise. Isaac would be more appropriate if Rubio was a true contender.

RAND PAUL

Justin Timberlake
Neil Patrick Harris
Ryan Phillipe
The kid from Billy Madison
Vincent Cassel
Anthony Geary
Barry Williams
Hugh Laurie
Michael Cera

Justin Timberlake was born to play Rand Paul. I feel like he was training for it when he nailed the role of dry-humping substitute teacher Scott Delacorte in the underrated Cameron Diaz epic Bad Teacher. That said, Neil Patrick Harris is a strong contender, among other things because of his experience playing the cool-headed fascist psychic Carl Jenkins in Starship Troopers. Nobody is going to argue with the kid from Billy Madison as a choice, however, and strong arguments could be made for Barry "Greg Brady" Williams, Ryan Phillipe or even poor Vincent Cassel (I'd like to cast as many French people as possible in this movie, because it would annoy the citizens of both countries).

LINDSEY GRAHAM

Zach Galifanakis
Eddie Izzard
Carol Channing
Steve Buscemi
Ricky Gervais
Justin Bieber

Eddie Izzard could do a fabulously campy Graham – his impersonation of Church of Englanders singing, "Oh God, what on earth is my hairdo all about?" sounds uncannily like a Graham stump speech. Galifanakis could probably play Graham in his sleep, but the Judd Apatow factor in this movie is dangerously high as it is. 

BEN CARSON

Don Cheadle
Robert Guillaume
Dennis Haysbert
Yasiin Bey (formerly known as Mos Def)
Tim Meadows
Cuba Gooding Jr.

Gooding Jr. has already played Carson, but I don't know… I'd almost rather have Gooding run for president and have Carson star in the movie. If we can't do that, I like Dennis Haysbert of Heat, 24, and Allstate commercial fame. It's a different kind of role for Haysbert. He's got the wizened eyes and the deep voice, but he'd have to work at that just-struck-by-a-frying-pan look that voters in Iowa love so much. The former Mos Def is also a great choice because he's probably smoked just enough weed to make sense of Carson's candidacy.

JOHN KASICH

Glenn Close
Jon Bon Jovi
Chris Cooper
Kevin Costner
Christopher McDonald

Glenn Close, reprising the asset-hoovering Captain Monica Rawling character from The Shield, is a strong choice for Kasich, although the Twitter user who suggested the violently yellow-haired veteran character actor McDonald of Happy Gilmore and Spy Kids 2 fame was definitely on to something. Costner, who dialed his screen presence almost all the way down to zero for another Ohio-themed role in the wretched Draft Day, might also be a low-energy fit at this stage of his career.

RICK PERRY

Josh Brolin
Tommy Lee Jones
Harry Hamlin
Gary Cole
Tyler Perry

Harry Hamlin is an interesting choice because as @ruckcohlchez pointed out, Perry probably got the idea for the smart glasses by watching Hamlin wear glasses on Mad Men. Cole could do it – Gary Cole could probably play anyone from Patty Hearst to Patrice Lumumba – and casting Tyler Perry to play Rick Perry would be a nice running homage to Dennis Miller in a Republican-themed movie. But in the end, it has to be Josh Brolin as Perry, doesn't it? Between the resemblance and Brolin's demonstrated skill at playing dazed, mentally absent politicians, his feels like a drop-the-mic audition.

JIM GILMORE

John C. Reilly
Ed Hermann
Martin Clunes
Elias Koteas 

As @writer614 pointed out, it doesn't matter who plays Gilmore, because "he doesn't have any lines anyway." Moreover you could cast anyone in the role – Peter Dinklage, Pete Postlethwaite, Forest Whitaker, Rooney Mara, anyone – because nobody knows what Gilmore looks like. If we must make a serious choice, I like the perpetually confounded Clunes of Doc Martin fame, although as an American and a veteran of many toxic-dumb-person roles, Reilly would have more of an instinct here.

MITT ROMNEY (when he enters the race)

Bruce Campbell
Michael Shannon
Fred Willard
Fred Ward 

It will be an injustice if the great Bruce Campbell doesn't get to play Mitt Romney at some point in his life.

HILLARY CLINTON

Robert Redford
Rebecca De Mornay
Helen Mirren
Meryl Streep
Amy Poehler
Emma Thompson

I think Robert Redford would make a great Hillary – just imagine it for a minute – but there are a lot of people who wouldn't see the humor there. The studio heads will want Mirren or Streep if they can't convince Emma Thompson to do it again (did she have a sequel deal for Primary Colors?). Rebecca De Mornay would be interesting if she souped up her Mrs. Mott/evil nanny role from The Hand that Rocks the Cradle.

BERNIE SANDERS

Bruce Dern
Christopher Lloyd
Larry David
James Adomanian
Austin Pendleton

Sanders is going to be an interesting and controversial casting decision. Adomanian has of course already played Bernie, but it's hard not to imagine Larry David or especially Christopher Lloyd in the role. Veteran character actor Austin Pendleton did a great impersonation of a lefty politician in Searching for Bobby Fischer, although the actual role was an aging chessmaster obsessed with taking a pawn in a penny-ante tournament that matters only to other chess players.

Two final notes. One, I left out a few of the ancillary Dems, like O'Malley and Chafee, because, well, who cares?

Secondly, I have a strong belief that Chow Yun-Fat should be in every movie. Since he doesn't really fit as any of the candidates, I'm open to write-in suggestions for his part in the film. Could he be Frank Luntz? Anderson Cooper? Huma Abedin? Nate Silver? All ideas are welcome.

Federal Reserve Needs to Worry About Inequality, Not Inflation

By Joseph Stiglitz, Guardian UK

09 September 15

 

If Fed raises interest rates every time there is a sign of wage growth, workers’ share will be ratcheted down – never recovering what was lost in the downturn

t the end of every August, central bankers and financiers from around the world meet in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, for the US Federal Reserve’s economic symposium. This year, the participants were greeted by a large group of mostly young people, including many African- and Hispanic Americans.

The group was not there so much to protest as to inform. They wanted the assembled policymakers to know that their decisions affect ordinary people, not just the financiers who are worried about what inflation does to the value of their bonds or what interest-rate hikes might do to their stock portfolios. And their green T-shirts were emblazoned with the message that for these Americans, there has been no recovery.

Even now, seven years after the global financial crisis triggered the Great Recession, “official” unemployment among AfricanAmericans is more than 9%. According to a broader (and more appropriate) definition, which includes part-time employees seeking full-time jobs and marginally employed workers, the unemployment rate for the US as a whole is 10.3%.

But, for African Americans – especially the young – the rate is much higher. For example, for African Americans aged 17 to 20 who have graduated from high school but not enrolled in college, the unemployment rate is over 50%. The “jobs gap” – the difference between today’s employment and what it should be – is three million.

With so many people out of work, downward pressure on wages is showing up in official statistics as well. So far this year, real wages for non-supervisory workers fell by nearly 0.5%. This is part of a long-term trend that explains why household incomes in the middle of the distribution are lower than they were a quarter-century ago.

Wage stagnation also helps to explain why statements from Fed officials that the economy has virtually returned to normal are met with derision. Perhaps that is true in the neighbourhoods where the officials live. But, with the bulk of the increase in incomes since the US “recovery” began going to the top 1% of earners, it is not true for most communities. The young people at Jackson Hole, representing a national movement called, naturally, “Fed Up,” could attest to that.

There is strong evidence that economies perform better with a tight labour market and, as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has shown, lower inequality (and the former typically leads to the latter). Of course, the financiers and corporate executives who pay $1,000 to attend the Jackson Hole meeting see things differently: low wages mean high profits, and low interest rates mean high stock prices.

The Fed has a dual mandate – to promote full employment and price stability. It has been more than successful at the second, partly because it has been less than successful at the first. So why will policymakers be considering an interest rate hike at the Fed’s September meeting?

The usual argument for raising interest rates is to dampen an overheating economy in which inflationary pressures have become too high. That is obviously not the case now. Indeed, given wage stagnation and the strong dollar, inflation is well below the Fed’s own 2% target, not to mention the 4% rate for which many economists (including the IMF’s former chief economist), have argued.

Inflation hawks argue that the inflation dragon must be slayed before one sees the whites of its eyes: fail to act now and it will burn you in a year or two. But, in the current circumstances, higher inflation would be good for the economy. There is essentially no risk that the economy would overheat so quickly that the Fed could not intervene in time to prevent excessive inflation. Whatever the unemployment rate at which inflationary pressures become significant – a key question for policymakers – we know that it is far lower than the rate today.

If the Fed focuses excessively on inflation, it worsens inequality, which in turn worsens overall economic performance. Wages falter during recessions; if the Fed then raises interest rates every time there is a sign of wage growth, workers’ share will be ratcheted down – never recovering what was lost in the downturn.

The argument for raising interest rates focuses not on the wellbeing of workers, but that of the financiers. The worry is that in a low-interest-rate environment, investors’ irrational “search for yield” fuels financial sector distortions. In a well-functioning economy, one would have expected the low cost of capital to be the basis of healthy growth. In the US, workers are being asked to sacrifice their livelihoods and wellbeing to protect well-heeled financiers from the consequences of their own recklessness.

The Fed should simultaneously stimulate the economy and tame the financial markets. Good regulation means more than just preventing the banking sector from harming the rest of us (though the Fed didn’t do a very good job of that before the crisis). It also means adopting and enforcing rules that restrict the flow of funds into speculation and encourage the financial sector to play the constructive role in our economy that it should, by providing capital to establish new firms and enable successful companies to expand.

I often feel a great deal of sympathy for Fed officials, because they must make close calls in an environment of considerable uncertainty. But the call right now is not a close one. On the contrary, it is as close to a no-brainer as such decisions can be: now is not the time to tighten credit and slow down the economy.