Alibi Ike (1935)

This is a wonderful film. I don't know that the trailer gives a sense of just how funny Joe E. Brown is. Unfortunately, the movie is not on DVD, so you'll have to catch it on TCM or some other classic channel.




Preview here: http://www.tcm.com/video/videoPlayerFrame/?cid=15997

What Americans Will Tolerate, And What They Will Not

From the Wall Street Journal's Brendan Miniter:

America is a land of perpetual rebirth and reform--always has been. That's why George W. Bush gets a pass on whatever he did before he found Jesus and swore off drinking. And it's why Bill Clinton received the benefit of the doubt over his "youthful indiscretions" in 1992. And it is why John Kerry probably would have been given a pass on his anti-Vietnam War activities, if only he could plausibly claim to have seen the error in calling his fellow veterans war criminals and equating America with communist Vietnam.

[...]

What Americans will not tolerate is pessimism, defeatism and stagnation. It's not for nothing that Jimmy Carter's presidency ended amid an era of "stagflation." When Mr. Carter put a sweater on in the Oval Office and told Americans to get ready to start accepting less, he might as well have resigned. Ronald Reagan won the presidency in a landslide in 1980, promising a brighter, better and stronger America. Four years later he won in a walk talking about "morning in America."

http://www.opinionjournal.com/columnists/bminiter/?id=110005899