Comments on: War Room?

Question: War Room?

jca — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 08:58:40 -0800

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..."

By: matteo

matteo — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 09:04:55 -0800

a screenshot would help

By: mumkin

mumkin — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 09:12:17 -0800

Or a timecode at least, for those who have the dvd (I don't).

By: box

box — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 09:15:04 -0800

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.

By: mumkin

mumkin — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 09:17:44 -0800

Surprise, surprise, it's available in 10-minute YouTube slices. Can you find the guy there?

By: jca

jca — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 09:24:07 -0800

This YouTube video starting at 5:30.

By: box

box — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 09:38:13 -0800

This guy, who's talking about homemade vs professional signs? Maybe Paul Begala?

By: jca

jca — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 09:47:10 -0800

Yes, the one standing in your screenshot. It's not Paul Begala.

By: jca

jca — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 09:48:08 -0800

(my quotes in the original question were pretty close considering it was from memory)

By: iconomy

iconomy — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 10:00:37 -0800

It looks like Harold Ickes to me. He is in the cast list at IMDB.

By: box

box — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 10:09:16 -0800

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.

By: mumkin

mumkin — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 10:51:27 -0800

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.

By: iconomy

iconomy — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 11:12:12 -0800

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.

By: jouster

jouster — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 13:28:49 -0800

ickes. totally.

By: matteo

matteo — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 14:03:44 -0800

it's Ickes, 100%

By: dhartung

dhartung — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 18:31:24 -0800

The guy at the table even says "Harold raised an issue ..."