If you can stand it, PBS's Lee Atwater profile is definitely worth watching...if, for no other reason, the insight it gives us into the mentality of Washington insiders.
At its essence, that mentality displays a stunning contempt for the rest of us...which is a major reason WHY a Lee Atwater could become the sort of driving force for a generation of lying, sleaze mongering, cheap stunts, and so on as the basis for modern political campaigns.
Far from showing any measure of shame, they instead revel in their ability to pull fast ones on the press and general public, literally conning their way up the political food chain. As for Atwater himself, though fate's intervention resulted in some measure of personal remorse, the box had long-since been opened...and no one's closed it since.
Definitely watch the show or read the transcript if you can stand it--personally, I didn't want to watch (sometimes my outrage meter needs a rest)--but I'm glad I bit the bullet and did. Atwater played a huge role in the latest cheapening of our political process, one that Barack Obama can hopefully counter, at least in part.
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