War Room?
March 30, 2008 8:58 AM   RSS feed for this thread Subscribe

ID this (Bill) Clinton campaign official in the documentary The War Room?

In the documentary movie The War Room about the 1992 Clinton presidential campaign, a large group of Clinton campaign officials are meeting around a large table just before a convention talking about the size of their Clinton signs.

Who is the man standing at the end of the room, somewhat annoyed, saying things along the lines of: "Now wait a minute Bob." "Let's get a decision on this." "I know this isn't the greatest policy decision ever..."
posted by jca to media & arts (15 comments total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
a screenshot would help
posted by matteo at 9:04 AM on March 30, 2008


Or a timecode at least, for those who have the dvd (I don't).
posted by mumkin at 9:12 AM on March 30, 2008


Well, it's not Carville or Stephanopolous, because you'd recognize those guys. Who else worked on the '92 Clinton campaign?

Yeah, a screenshot would help.
posted by box at 9:15 AM on March 30, 2008


Surprise, surprise, it's available in 10-minute YouTube slices. Can you find the guy there?
posted by mumkin at 9:17 AM on March 30, 2008


This YouTube video starting at 5:30.
posted by jca at 9:24 AM on March 30, 2008


This guy, who's talking about homemade vs professional signs? Maybe Paul Begala?
posted by box at 9:38 AM on March 30, 2008


Yes, the one standing in your screenshot. It's not Paul Begala.
posted by jca at 9:47 AM on March 30, 2008


(my quotes in the original question were pretty close considering it was from memory)
posted by jca at 9:48 AM on March 30, 2008


It looks like Harold Ickes to me. He is in the cast list at IMDB.
posted by iconomy at 10:00 AM on March 30, 2008


Not a lot of Ickes on Youtube, but here's a fairly lengthy interview with him (there's a big chunk of Ickes around 19:30). I'm not very good at this kind of stuff, but I think that ico might be right.
posted by box at 10:09 AM on March 30, 2008


Ickes does seem the best option so far. I've Google image-searched most of the men in the credits and he looks to be the matchiest. Like box, I claim no expertise in IDing people from 15 year old blurry video footage, though. Frankly, "Bill O'Reilly" was what first came to mind.
posted by mumkin at 10:51 AM on March 30, 2008


I think the telling similarities, given the age difference, are those huge ear lobes, the voice, and the baldness pattern.

Part of a comment from a review of the documentary: A segment from the Democratic Convention pits Harold Ickes against an operative who argues for distributing thousands of handpainted signs versus pre-printed blue placards is a hilarious reminder of what it's really like in the smoke-filled room.
posted by iconomy at 11:12 AM on March 30, 2008


ickes. totally.
posted by jouster at 1:28 PM on March 30, 2008


it's Ickes, 100%
posted by matteo at 2:03 PM on March 30, 2008


The guy at the table even says "Harold raised an issue ..."
posted by dhartung at 6:31 PM on March 30, 2008


« Older Lending through Kiva or other ...   |   How should I build temporary, ... Newer »
This thread is closed to new comments.