The Green Bus v. The White House

One of the most polarizing statewide elections of recent times, the 2002 U.S. Senate race in Minnesota pitted incumbent Democrat Paul Wellstone against Republican Norm Coleman. The battle was seen as a test of President Bush's political muscle—the White House personally chose Coleman to try to unseat the popular Wellstone in order to further ensure the Republican hold on the Senate. Wellstone's opposition to the resolution to go to war in Iraq helped him take the lead in the polls, but days before the election Wellstone and his wife and daughter were killed in an airplane crash. What followed in the wake of this tragedy is captured in filmmaker Sally Hanley's The Green Bus v. The White House, narrated by Peter Coyote, which provides a startling view of the increasingly crass and often desperate nature of American politics. All sides come across miserably here: the Democrats blindly reached out to former Vice President Walter Mondale to quickly fill Wellstone's shoes, President Bush made his fourth visit to Minnesota only two days before the election, and candidates from the Independent and Green Parties struggled to find anyone interested in hearing what they have to say. A sad commentary on the decline of the American political system, this sharp, insightful documentary is recommended. Aud: C, P. (P. Hall)