Now that the presidential campaigns are thinning out, set your TiVos on Monday to tape “The Best Man,” a great 1964 movie (in the waning days of black and white) starring Henry Fonda and Cliff Robertson as competing presidential candidates heading into the convention. Obviously, it takes place back when the conventions played a role in deciding the nominee, as opposed to just coronating the nominee. It’s relevant this year because the whole point of it is the tension between positive and negative campaigns. Both men have to weigh how nasty they are willing to get in pursuit of the nomination. Well written and well-acted, as if “well-acted” needed to be said given the talent involved.

By the way, IMDb’s trivia page says that Ronald Reagan was turned down for a part because a studio executive didn’t think he looked presidential enough!

Title	Content
Movie:	The Best Man
Director:	Franklin J. Schaffner
Release Date:	5 April 1964 (USA) / Other Countries
Genre:	Drama
Tagline:	Does The Best Man Always Get To The White House?
User Rating:	728 votes, average 7.8 out of 10
Runtime:	102 min
Awards:	Nominated for Oscar. Another 1 win&3 nominations
Cast:	Henry Fonda, Cliff Robertson, Edie Adams, Shelley Berman ...
Others:	Additional Details Close Move Title Content MPAA: County: USA Language: English Color: Black and White Aspect Ratio: 1.66 : 1 Sound: Mono (RCA Sound Recording) Company: Millar/Turman Productions Certification: Canada:PG (Ontario) / Finland:S / West Germany:16 (f) IMDBTag: Powered by IMDBTag & imdb.com Sound Mix, Aspect Ratio ...
Photos:	N/A
	Powered by IMDBTag

I posted earlier about why I don’t feel, as a journalist, that it’s right for me to voice my candidate preference.

Here’s another journalist who agrees with me.

Thanks to my California brother for the link.

It’s frustrating sometimes to be a journalist. I have always tried not to wear my political heart on my sleeve because it would compromise things that I cover. And yet this time, as a voter, I really wish I could talk about for whom I am voting, and why. I can’t, but I wish I could.

(Actually, I should say for whom I have already voted. I’m at the courthouse so often that it only makes sense for me to early vote.)

It’s been a few weeks since I’ve encouraged you to listen to “Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me.”

Well, this week you have even more of a reason to listen, because the “Not My Job” guest is, according to the opening credits of his TV show over the months,

• grippy
• megamerican
• Lincolnish
• superstantial
• freem
• eneagled
• flagaphile
• good
• gutly

Yes, it’s the author of “I Am America (And So Can You!),” and perhaps the next president of the United States, Stephen Colbert.

I already knew that Stephen Colbert was one in a long line of comedians who have mounted tongue-in-cheek presidential campaigns, from Pat Paulsen to Dave Barry. But I’m embarrassed to say I never knew about this one, which I found out about from Big Orange Michael over at Music City Bloggers. Be sure and read the official campaign book, which is priceless.

Of all the nights to fall asleep on the couch in front of the TV. I saw Stephen Colbert’s appearance on “The Daily Show,” but missed the big announcement on Colbert’s own show a few minutes later. (Clip contains a bleeped and punctuation-obscured Bad Word.)

Here, in case you missed it, is a very funny guest column Colbert had written for Maureen Dowd a few days earlier, hinting at his possible decision.