My wife bought me the Frost Nixon interviews on DVD. 400 minutes of shockingly frank conversation with one of America’s most controversial presidents. Yeah, yeah, I could have watched the dramatic adaptation, but that’s like buying a greatest hits album by a cover band.
One bit that I saw last night wound up focusing on Nixon’s use of language that may have been inspired by old Gangster flicks. Which made me think: how would Nixon, or many other Presidents, done as gangsters?
You always hear about how Al Capone could have been a great executive, but you rarely see executives evaluated as potential Mob Bosses. So here are a couple of thoughts:
Nixon- Tricky Dick would have run into the same problems in either career stream. Over complicated schemes and a refusal to let his henchmen swing. He’s like Capone that way.
JFK- As much as I dig Kennedy, I have to say that he’s another fella who would have had the same fate as a gangster. Charming, but when the Mob, the Cubans (pro and anti Castro), the CIA, and the KKK all want you dead as president; it shows a talent for making enemies. I’m thinking he’d be another Bugsy Siegel.
George Bush Jr- Clearly the front man for a much cleverer boss. Or a master of putting on the idiot front so no one suspects he’s the real boss. Like Jr. Soprano or Ronald Reagan.
FDR- More of a Republic Serial or James Bond villain than a mob boss: ruling a criminal empire from behind a desk with a cigarette holder, a wheel chair and a revolutionary vision.
LBJ- A Tough-talking big-man capable of being his own enforcer. Would eventually get tired of his perpetual battle with rivals and retires to vineyard. Dies suddenly. Think Vito Carleone.
Nerd Nugget-
Seriously, if the JFK gang warring with the Nixon mob doesn’t inspire the ‘Nazi’s Riding Dinosaur’ part of your brain, I would suggest seeing a professional.
