I watched There Will Be Blood this past Sunday. Simply the best movie I’ve seen since I watched Children of Men and Pan’s Labyrinth over a year ago, which is definitely saying something. As a film junkie who’s watched literally thousands and thousands of flicks, it’s not often that one leaves me awestruck. Paul Thomas Anderson’s There Will Be Blood did just that.

The first thing TWBB reminded of was Citizen Kane. Not just the plot itself, but also Daniel Day-Lewis’ career performance. It was so reminiscent of what Orson Welles accomplished in Kane. Then I started digging deeper.

TWBB is based on a book called Oil. Obviously, that is a topic that resonates now more than ever. For me, the word oil has become synonymous with greed, with power. And it appears that was the case long before any Bushes ever called the White House home. The movie, to me, is really about greed.

The parallels to this election are obvious as well. On one side you have the older mogul, hellbent on winning no matter the cost (Day-Lewis as Daniel Plainview/Hillary Clinton). On the other side you have the young prophet, who possesses an uncanny ability to gather and rally people behind him (Paul Dano as Eli Sunday/Barack Obama). I won’t give away the end of the movie, but it was a bleaker outcome than I am hoping the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination race ends up being.

The Plainview character projected himself as leader, a philanthropist. An “oil man” — not a business man — who put the common good of mankind before himself. In reality, however, he was a scumbag. He was much more concerned about his own well-being than anyone else’s. Plainview was poisoned by greed, down to his very core. He had a disgusting sense of self entitlement. Cloaked at first, it became more and more clear as the movie progressed that he would do absolutely anything to get what he wanted. He was very convincing, too. People caved into Plainview’s apparent selflessness, only to eventually fall victim to his true selfishness.

The Daniel Plainview of the 2008 presidential election is Hillary Clinton. Like Plainview, it is unclear when she became consumed by power, by her insatiable bloodthurst to be the best. But it clearly has happened — to both her and hubby Bubba. What I’m afraid of is that people will mistake their greed and obsession for passion and conviction.

The Clintons may have started off as good people, and they’ve done plenty of good deeds along the way. But at this point they are nothing more than a couple of ruthless, vile cutthroats. I’m convinced that they’d slit anybody but Chelsea’s throat to get back into the White House, and maybe even hers. They’ve already slit plenty of throats with this current campaign, and their dishonest brand of politics will eventually slit this country’s throat (President Bush has already started the job, so it won’t be hard).

It’s funny that I bring up President Bush, because Hillary is quite fond of calling he and Vice President Cheney “oil men.” Plainview also called others oil men, disassociating himself with the crude business. But in reality, he was the worst oil man of them all. The same thing is happening with HRC. She is in neck deep with special interests groups and lobbyists. If she’s not an oil man herself, she’s definitely Mrs. Wall Street.

The difference between There Will Be Blood and real life is that we can’t walk away from the latter. The credits don’t roll after two hours and 40 minutes — they roll after four years, maybe eight. Just like Plainview didn’t keep his promise to give $5,000 to a church as part of his deal to buy a town’s oil, I don’t expect Hill to keep many of hers either.

Will she really give us universal healthcare, or just mandate the same outrageous options we have now? After all, we all know that Hillcare didn’t work in the ’90s. Will she really pull our troops out of Iraq? Probably not. She originally voted for authorization of the war and was seen clapping her ass off when President Bush talked about The Surge at his latest State of the Union Address. Will she address the moral deficit that this country currently faces? Please — she can’t even address the moral deficit in her husband. Will she be prepared for the 1,460 days after “day one?” We’ve seen her lack of foresight before, and we all know how distracting Clinton drama can be once it takes the spotlight. Most of all, can you really trust anything this woman says? How many times have the Clintons flat out lied to Americans now? Are they neck and neck with Dubya and Cheney yet?
Just like the movie, there will be blood before this whole thing is said and done. Hopefully, it will be blood oozing out of the Clintons’ political corpse, and not out of the American people after they get swindled into the Clinton Restoration.

Besides, you know what’s scarier than the Clinton restoration? The McCain Renaissance. Hillary will fuck up both health care and the Iraq war, but McCain could be worse (even though part of me thinks he might be better in some ways, too, which is sad). We’re on the verge of recession, and the soon-to-be Republican presidential nominee admits that he doesn’t know jack shit about the economy. Awesome. Just awesome. The thing is, he will probably beat Hillary. Soundly. Yes, among Centerists and Independents he is hated less than Hillary. Hell, they actually like him. If the entire GOP rallies around him, she’d have no shot. The Clintons have simply polarized too many voters that aren’t card-carrying Democrats, and even quite a few of those.

Again, I’m just scared shitless that if Hillary wins the nomination, we’re either getting John McCain or more Clinton drama and fuck ups. There definitely will be blood in either case. I’m just hoping that America and the Demoratic party aren’t the ones left bleeding. That’s why Barack Obama should be our only choice for President. Unlike Hill and Johnny Boy, he doesn’t employ the tactics of old. He’s not part of the broken system of Washington, but instead part of the solution. Obama can beat McCain in a general election by wooing not just Dems, but also Independents and some Republicans. Obama can change the crooked politics of Washington.

If Obama wins the nomination, there will still be blood, though — the blood of the old, broken political system. Now that is a flick I’d love to watch.

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