Quote of the Day- Jeff Daniels

The always provocative center-left magazine "The New Republic" tweeted the following question tonight (paraphrase): "Will partisan presidential campaign rhetoric still continue during the Olympics?," which does keenly illustrate that right now The United States of America is perhaps as politically divided as our southern neighbors Mexico, where we gather they are still tallying the votes.

So, since this is an election year, and we have already quoted presidents, vice presidents and even candidates who lost the election and never became 'el presidente' (ie. John McCain and John Kerry), we thought we'd quote actors who have played American president on film and for television.

We start with Jeff Daniels, 57, who I saw in concert (yes, he sings too and he is quite good at it) at the Carolina Theatre in Durham, NC, last year. Daniels is known for films like "The Purple Rose of Cairo" (dir. Woody Allen, 1984) and "Squid and the Whale" (dir. Noah Bambach, 2005), but he played Gen. George Washington in the tv movie "The Crossing" (2000). The actor/singer is currently starring the hit HBO series "The Newsroom" and he is on the cover of this month's "Cigar Aficionado" magazine.

Interestingly, Oscar-winning, liberal-turned Tea Partier actor Jon Voight played Washington in the right-wing comedy "An American Carol" (2008) which spoofed Michael Moore, but the film did not perform well at the box office nor did it help get McCain elected. Voight also played Franklin D. Roosevelt" in the film "Pearl Harbor," so he will be quoted here at some point this week.

For the moment, here is the quote from Daniels:

"And the actors tend to want to watch themselves very often. I'm one of those guys."

http://www.tnr.com

http://www.cigaraficiando.com

http://www.gwu.edu

http://www.mountvernon.org

http://www.jeffdaniels.com

http://www.carolinatheatre.org

http://www.michaelmoore.com