MovieChat Forums > The Candidate (1972) Discussion > Question on why they wanted McKay as can...

Question on why they wanted McKay as candidate

posted 15 years ago by ednalyn99
8 replies | jump to latest

Maybe I missed an important exchange of dialogue in the movie, but it was never clear to me why they originally wanted McKay to run for office and have him lose the election.

Did they just want anyone to challenge the incumbent and perhaps shave some votes? Get campaign money and make a business out of it so they'll have jobs? Or they wanted him for a different reason entirely.

I was confused by this. Can someone explain?

Thanks.

[–] rino7789 14 years ago

He was a good looking clean cut attorney whose father had once been governor of the state. Originally they were not looking for him to win, just put in a credible effort.

[–] Shadow1517 14 years ago

they also knew that they could get him to run by telling him he can "do what he wants" as he would definitely lose. Everyone else was afraid to run against the popular incumbent and they wanted to at least stir up some trouble. Once he got a real chance they decided to get him to run in the more standard way and become a "candidate" as opposed to be truly unique.

[–] Caractacus23 14 years ago

A major turning point was when the Peter Boyle character said the polls showed him losing by something like 66-34, and that he'd be "humiliated." His fervor to avoid humiliation (and perhaps the subsequent discrediting of his ideals) led to him to actually win the race, albeit somewhat inadvertently.

Been making IMDB board posts since the 90s, yet can't bring up any from before December of 2004.

[–] nutsberryfarm 11 years ago

good point.

Where there's smoke, there's barbecue!

[–] mariucciarena 14 years ago

To answer the OP's question as why they wanted McKay originally to run:

It's because this was a machine-run campaign. They knew Jarmon was a lock to win so all they have to do is produce a candidate that exceeds expectations. That's how they market themselves to future campaigns.

McKay had some attractive intangibles (his looks, his father, his recent excellent press) that the machine they believed they could milk to make the race closer than expected.

Also, McKay was naive and as the movie points out, it's something the machine could eventually exploit.

No one with any credentials was going to run against Jarmon to get hammered and kill any future ambitions.

McKay was told he was going to lose. He was okay with that.

Lucas was looking for precisely this type of candidate and after the article in "Time" he knew McKay was it.

[–] april_rain 13 years ago

You said it. They just wanted a fresh candidate with a decent background to give a good fight and lose by a small margin.

[–] mike-848 11 years ago

Well Lucas gets McKay's juices running by telling him that he can do more change by being in politics rather than remaining a community organizer. Sound familiar?

McKay then asks Lucas what's in it for him and he mentions $1,000 a week (I think it was) and airline and travel perks win or lose. Lucas gets to live a nice lifestyle doing what he does best and that's running campaigns.

[–] hockeyhrs 9 years ago

He reminded people of JFK.

Read the "Warren G. Harding Error" chapter of Malcolm Gladwell's book "Blink" if you want to understand more.