In 1957 Elia Kazan made a movie called "A Face in the Crowd," about the emerging power of television & celebrity, in which an Arkansas hobo and guitar picker who has tremendous likeability is discovered in a jail cell–and played by Andy Griffith–gains acclaim and then political power. The alternative title of the film was "Arkansas Traveler," and yes, it had a dark side to it.
Isn’t this Mike Huckabee? Isn’t that what you think of when you look at him: he’s a face in the crowd. Then you hear him speak and you fall under his spell. He’s a brilliant speaker, he feels like your real friend. I do like him, though I don’t really trust him. In the end, I think he has nothing really to say. (And here he is on my favorite subject–unreconstructed).
(This is not my idea. It comes from writer Lynn Hirschberg, whose brain a lot of writers and editors pick for insights).
