Coming Attraction? - actor Warren Beatty contemplates entering politics - Brief Article

Warren Beatty as candidate.

Mr. Long, a writer for television in Hollywood, is a contributing editor of National Review.

The floor of any movie set is marked with bits of colored tape. These are called "marks," and, for the camera to be focused properly, actors must stand right on top of the bits of tape. This is called "hitting the mark," and an actor who does it saves everyone a lot of time and money.

The "let's pretend" part of acting is easy: Look sad when you're supposed to be sad; act scared when you're supposed to be scared. The hard part is to do all that and hit your mark, too. Without looking down.

So now that Warren Beatty is thinking about getting into the presidential race, we should all be relieved. We will have at least one candidate who hits his mark every time-which is to be encouraged.

Tactically speaking, nothing could be better for Republicans than a Beatty run for the Democratic nomination. His politics are boilerplate left-liberal. He claims to want to return his party to its New Deal-New Frontier "roots," away from big money and big contributors, conveniently forgetting that in those years his party was even more corrupt and more beholden to special interests than it is now. It's been a long time since the Republicans were tossed such a fat pitch.

What Beatty wants from a president, he says, is someone who can "free himself from fundraising" and "spend his popularity and mold public opinion rather than follow it." What he wants, in other words, is a leader. After eight craven, cynical years, the liberals are finally getting it. Bill Clinton's tawdry presidency hasn't laid a glove on the Republican party (more Republican congressmen since 1993, more Republican senators since 1993, more Republican governors since 1993) but instead has gutted the Democratic party from the inside. The official strategy of the Democrats for eight years has concentrated on the survival of the Clinton presidency, not on the advancement of its core ideas. Warren Beatty is the crazy sister the Democrats have been hiding in the attic for eight years, and he's coming downstairs in the middle of the wedding reception to frighten the guests.

Of course, the Republican slate isn't exactly bursting with characters who mold public opinion either. So the second benefit of a Beatty candidacy would be to teach the other candidates how to behave like leaders, which means, simply, that you have to be willing to persuade. You have to be ready to disagree with an audience and still charm them. The problem with most Republican candidates is that they act like the people are already convinced. That's what makes candidates like Quayle, Bauer, Robertson, and Dole so off-putting. At the heart of their message is an assumption that the voters agree with them completely. This is a small-timer's strategy, and it won't work. The voters want to see you work. They want to see you exhort. They want to see you lead. But they don't want to see you look down at the little pieces of tape on the floor.

In the last presidential campaign, a good and brave man was bested by a cowardly man because the coward seemed more confident than the brave one. Poor Bob Dole seemed genuinely terrified of the camera, and try as he did to appear cheerful and young, it was an unnatural pose for a man who is dyspeptic and not. His shortcomings were crystallized in his brief, unhappy appearance on the Today show with Katie Couric. She grilled him on his tobacco policy. He looked uncomfortable. Running through his head, no doubt, were the latest poll data showing that 72 percent of all Americans supported Clinton's tobacco policy. He stammered. Don't say anything mean, Bob must have echoed in his head. And then he muttered something about dairy products being harmful, too. And that was that.

A thought experiment: Imagine Dole on the Today show again, being grilled on the same topic. He shrugs. "Katie," he says, "what can I say? It says on the box they cause cancer. Can't pass a law to keep you from behaving like a damn fool." He sits back.

That's what an actor would do: drop the line, wait with confidence, act natural. An actor who hits his mark every time makes it look easy. A great actor makes it not only seem effortless, but completely spontaneous, as if the floor weren't covered in little bits of tape. Ronald Reagan always cheerfully acknowledged that his training as an actor helped him in his presidency. The Left snickered, of course, but he was right: Reagan was a fearless speaker, an off-the-cuff joker, and he acted like a human being. He beat Jimmy Carter and Walter Mondale because, among other things, he just seemed more real. And his confidence translated into policy. A guy who isn't afraid of his audience isn't afraid to disagree with them. And isn't afraid to try to persuade them.

Years ago, as a young television writer, I wangled an invitation to meet Reagan in his Century City office. It was a pretty standard photo- op affair (elevator up, escort in, smile, hello, handshake, flashbulb, escort out, elevator down), but a thrill nonetheless. About a week later, his office sent two copies of the autographed photo, along with the negatives. He looks great; I look like a doofus intern.