Essay Questions

Is there a difference between political spin and outright lies?

The answer to this question would depend entirely on which side of the spin - or the lies - one is standing on. The facts in the movie are quite simple; the President has been embroiled in a sexual scandal which might generate so much public disgust that it prevents him from winning a second term in office - or even the right to go to the polls to run for one. His spin doctors manufacture a war story that makes him look heroic on a global scale, giving the people the chance to see him as more than a cheat and a philanderer; he looks statesmanlike, he prevents the escalation of a war; he is a President who can make a difference.

This is the way that the reality of the situation is "spun", and so if you are a spin doctor, or a member of the administration, you would automatically consider diverting the public's attention from a sex scandal to an international peacemaking triumph to be a victory for spin doctoring. If you are not a member of the ailing administration, you could very well consider the spin to be outright lies; after all, there is no war in Albania; the President is not an international peacemaker of hero. The entire situation is fabrication. Therefore the answer to the question depends on your position, and on whether you are on the inside and benefitting from the "spin" on a situation, or on the outside, and being blatantly lied to by an army of spin doctors.

What does the film tell us about public perception of politicians?

The film demonstrates clearly that people no longer have particularly high expectations for the morality of their president. When he is revealed to have disrespected the oval office by having illicit sex there, his administration automatically jump into gear, creating fake opportunities at warp speed for the president to show his statesmanlike ability to end a fake war on the other side of the world, in an attempt to show him in a different light and get his approval rating back up again.

In reality, it shouldn't matter what the President does after the sex in the office scandal comes to light, because the people should not be swayed by any subsequent act of heroics, irrespective of whether the war and his response ot it are real or fake. One act of humiliating the office should be enough, but the fact that it is possible to even come up with a story that might change the public's perception of the President speaks to the fact that public expectation of the President's morals are very low and that honesty and a good moral compass are not really pre-requisites of the job anymore. The film shows that the people believe most politicians to be dishonest or shady, and that they vote for them anyway in the absence of any other candidates.