|
Jewish World Review April 6, 2000 / 1 Nissan, 5760
Chris Matthews
Before a world audience, he accepted
his Academy Award by paying a personal, sincere tribute
to each of the four candidates he had bested.
The British actor saved his grandest tribute for his
youngest and clearly most-deserving competitor, Haley
Joel Osment, who portrayed a kid both cursed and gifted to
see the dead in "The Sixth Sense."
"There he is!" he exclaimed, finding the little boy down in
front, dressed like his older competitors in black tie. "Haley,
when I saw you I thought, 'Well, that takes me out of it!' "
Oh, if this could be the way politicians accept victory!
Imagine if the office-winners paid election-night tributes
such as this? If they directed the spotlight, not to their own
superiority, but to those who also had the guts to stick their
necks out, who also gave of their absolute best?
Better yet to admit, as Michael Caine did before America
and the world, to the special advantage that he had enjoyed
in the contest — in this case, Hollywood's sentimental
regard for the sheer endurance of Caine's four-decade film
career.
"Really, I'm basically up here, guys, to represent you as
what I hope you will be, a survivor."
Speaking of survivors, one of those who watched Caine was that once and future
presidential candidate, Sen. John McCain of Arizona.
"I thought it was really quite remarkable!" he said.
Would it have been better if George W. Bush had acted in the same manner
after wrapping up the Republican presidential nomination earlier in the month?
McCain refused to bite.
"In these campaigns, there's a lot of bitterness, a lot of anger. The one thing I'm
not going to do is look back in anger."
McCain said this on a Monday. By Tuesday afternoon, Bush himself showed
signs of having watched Caine's magnificent performance on Oscar night. He
was on the phone with McCain, trying his best to warm things up between them
or, perhaps, simply show some class.
"I think John and I both understand that the past is the past," the Texas governor
said after making his goodwill call, "and it's time to move forward."
It would have been more sincere if he, like Caine, had performed his
let's-get-together number three weeks earlier, on March 7, the night of all that
04/03/00: No. 2 spots: Woman-to-woman?
|