Word: bedford
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...While Republican voters decide among what polls continue to tell us is the least appealing field in a generation, Romney himself campaigns with trademark discipline and ferocious energy. Asked in Bedford how he managed to keep up such a grueling pace, Romney said that persistence and determination were Romney family traits, along with a tendency to "get a little boisterous." "There's an old family saying," he said, "If a Romney drowns in a river, look for the body upstream." Which, in this case, might be Michigan...
...dismissive of Obama's massive crowds, calling the legions that show up "teeny boppers," and implying that they're attracted to the Illinois Senator's star quality, not his politics. But McCain is a victim of that same mixed blessing. Al Davenport, a 66-year-old salesman from Bedford, New Hampshire, went to see McCain, and liked him - but he says that Obama will get his vote. He "reminds me of Kennedy...And I like that he's bringing out the young people, it was great to see them in line...
...Bedford Falls needs George Bailey. But the rest of us? Not so into him anymore. Don't get me wrong: I like Wonderful Life--the dance contest, the romance, the seductive mystery of Violet Bick. But isn't there something a little oppressive about it? To me, a former small-town kid, it's a tragedy, about a man whose dreams are beaten down by his needy, parochial, busybody neighbors. I want to yell at the screen, "You go on that honeymoon, George Bailey! Tell that cabdriver to floor it and never look back...
...that's where my money is!) In the end, the characters discover an authentic holiday outside the usual traditions--as when Ralphie and family, their turkey devoured by the neighbor's dogs, discover "Chinese turkey" (Peking duck) at a chop-suey restaurant. It's the individual Christmas that matters. Bedford Falls can take a hike...
Neither Christmas Story nor Wonderful Life, though, has an exclusive on the spirit of Christmas. The holiday is full of paradox: sacred and secular, giving and gorging, loving others and suffering them. It's not so bad to get that cornball annual reminder that Bedford Falls needs you. But it's not so terrible either to wonder whether, sometimes, you'd be better off without Bedford Falls...