ACT 2
SCENE 1
Another McCain rally.MCCAIN stands alone DS. He has visibly aged since the last time he appeared, and he looks increasingly desperate.
JUST YOU WAIT, JOE THE PLUMBER
(To the tune of “Just You Wait”)
MCCAIN: (singing)(To the tune of “Just You Wait”)
Just you wait, Joe the Plumber, just you wait!
You’ll be sorry if Barack is head of state!
You'll be broke, because he’ll tax you!
Do you think that’s fair? I axe you!
Just you wait, Joe the Plumber, just you wait!
Just you wait, Joe the Plumber, when you’re sick!
Barack says you’ll have insurance- it’s a trick!
‘Cause a doctor won’t improve things ‘til the government approves things!
Oh ho ho, Joe the Plumber, just you wait!
Ooooooh Joe the Plumber!
Just you wait until he taxes your small biz!
Ooooooh Joe the Plumber!
Don’t you know that that’s what socialism is?
We just want things to be more fair but Obama wants class warfare!
Oh ho ho, Joe the Plumber!
Oh ho ho, Joe the Plumber!
Just! You! Wait!
(Lights out.)
SCENE 2
Sarah Palin press conference.SCHMIDT and MCCAIN stand USL, as they look upon PALIN standing DSR at a podium. PALIN continues to wear the trapped expression she wore in SCENE 5. She is faced by a handful of weary REPORTERS DSC.
SCHMIDT: I swear, we’re still okay, Senator! You’re the comeback king! We’re gonna win this thing, I promise! We’re not dead yet!
SHE COULDN'T ANSWER RIGHT
(To the tune of “I Could Have Danced All Night”)
MCCAIN:(To the tune of “I Could Have Danced All Night”)
Dead! Dead! How could we not be dead?
There's just no way we'll ever make up ground!
Win? Win? We’re never gonna win!
Not unless Bin Laden bombs a town!
She couldn't answer right
She couldn't answer right
Until she read her notes.
She's making people scared
‘Cause she's so unprepared
And now we're losing votes!
I do not know how she can go and give them
Only non-sequiters all night.
I only know if she
Get asked about Muthee
She couldn’t ans- ans- answer right!
(music ends)
MCCAIN: Why are we doing this?!
SCHMIDT: We had to eventually let her talk to the press- it looks bad when we sequester her.
MCCAIN: And this doesn’t make us look bad? She hasn’t answered a question
coherently yet! When she was asked what magazines she read she looked like she was about to have a breakdown!
SCHMIDT: Don’t worry- it’s almost over. She just has to hold out a little longer.
MCCAIN’S CAMPAIGN
(To the tune of “The Rain In Spain”)
(To the tune of “The Rain In Spain”)
REPORTERS: (singing)
Poor campaign reporters!
Poor campaign reporters!
Night and day
We ask away!
Oh, poor campaign reporters!
All day long, asking her; while she rambles glassy-eyed!
All day long, asking her; how she’s qualified!
REPORTER: (spoken)
Governor Palin, many people feel that this campaign is showing signs of desperation. One day Senator McCain claims the fundamentals of the economy are strong. The next day McCain claims he’s been warning about economic disaster for years. One day Obama has been learning hatred at a radical Christian church, the next day he’s a Muslim terrorist. One day Colin Powell is a hero of the Republican Party, the next day he’s a racist who is only endorsing Obama because they’re both black. There seems to be a failure to stay “on message.” Right now, how would you characterize this campaign?
(PALIN at first looks stunned, then slowly breaks into a maniacal grin. As the song progresses she slips into near-catatonia. It is clear that she is having a nervous breakdown.)
PALIN: McCain’s campaign is, plainly, just inane.
REPORTER: Again?
PALIN: McCain’s campaign is, plainly, just inane.
MCCAIN: Oh, God, she’s lost it! I think she’s lost it!
PALIN: (sings)
McCain’s campaign is, plainly, just inane.
SCHMIDT: (spoken)
Oh shit, we’ve lost it! We’ve clearly lost it!
REPORTER:
Now once again, how is McCain?
PALIN:
He’s insane! He’s insane!
REPORTER:
And what of his campaign?
PALIN:
Inane! Inane!
PALIN AND REPORTERS:
McCain’s campaign is, plainly, just inane.
McCain’s campaign is, plainly, just inane!
REPORTER:
In PA, Michigan, and VA…?
PALIN:
Upsets can hardly happen.
(spoken)
How strange of them to let me run!
REPORTER:
Now once again, what about McCain?
PALIN:
He’s insane! He’s insane!
REPORTER:
And what’s this damn campaign?
PALIN:
Inane! Inane!
PALIN AND REPORTERS:
McCain’s campaign is, plainly, just inane.
McCain’s campaign is, plainly, just inane!
(MCCAIN and SCHMIDT quickly cross DSR, where they wrestle PALIN offstage.)
SCENE 3
McCain Campaign Headquarters. Election Day.MCCAIN paces back and forth DSL. SCHMIDT and PALIN stand DSR.
WITHOUT YOU
MCCAIN: (spoken)What a fool I was! What an imbecilic fool!
To think you two would help me win!
(sings)
What a fool I was, what a post-traumatic fool,
There are things that you just cannot spin!
Now, I must say to you, “my friends,”
Sarah Palin is not what she pretends!
(MCCAIN crosses to PALIN)
I might still have a chance without you!
My plans I could advance without you!
If I’d chosen Romney
Or hell, even Rudy
I could run the country without you!
I would look fit to lead without you!
Wouldn’t have to concede without you!
I could make my ascent, my win I would cement, yes I’d be president without you!
Yes it’s true! Without you!
PALIN:
You, my friend, who vet so well,
You can go to H-E-double-hockey-sticks!
I still have a career without you!
They still think I’m sincere without you!
And in 2012 I will run by myself without you!
MCCAIN: (spoken)
You little c---!
PALIN:
Without your record I will look more clean!
Without your angry talk I’ll look less mean!
Without your baggy jowls I’ll look more fit!
If I don’t have your baggage, Johnny- I’m legit!
I will go it alone without you
I can stand on my own without you
So go back to AZ
In four years you will see
What a winner I’ll be
Without you!
(PALIN storms off SR angrily. SCHMIDT shakes his head and also exits SR. MCCAIN is left alone. Offstage, a REPORTER starts reading electoral vote tallies.)
REPORTER (VO): Florida’s results are in and we’re calling it for Obama. That is 27 more electoral votes….
I’VE GROWN ACCUSTOMED TO THIS RACE
(To the tune of “I’ve Grown Accustomed To Her Face”)
MCCAIN:Damn! Damn! Damn! Damn!
I've grown accustomed to this race.
Is this all really how it ends?
I've grown accustomed to my Less-
Than-Straight-Talking Express.
The preyed-on fears,
The lies. The smears.
They’re second nature to me now;
Like calling everyone “my friends.”
I was perceived as independent during my 2000 campaign;
Surely I could always act like that year’s John McCain.
But I’m accustomed to the slobs;
The angry, racist mobs.
Accustomed to this race.
(Spoken)
Sarah Palin! What an infantile idea. What a clueless,
stupid, brainless thing to do! I regret it! I regret it!
It was doomed before we blew off Lieberman.
(Singing)
I can see her then, Governor of NowheresVille
With her wretched little redneck husband Todd.
With her endless, stupid, chants of “Drill, Baby, Drill”
And her certainty that she was pals with God.
She tried to play the tough reformer,
And showed she had no ethics, instead.
Responses couldn’t be lukewarmer,
To a woman without one brain in her head!
Ha!
After four years of a Barack Obama rule
When’s he’s finally mopped up George Dubya’s mess
She’ll be nothing more than a helium-voiced fool
In a twenty-thousand-dollar Neiman dress.
Oh, poor Sarah. How simply frightful!
How humiliating! How delightful!
How poignant it'll be when she starts running in ’12.
And she’s not even invited on “The View.”
All her grand ambitions, she’ll tearfully shelve—
(Spoken)
Will I invite her to a Georgetown cocktail party?
Give her my endorsement or the treatment she deserves?
Will I take her back or throw the baggage out?
(Sings)
I'm a “real” American;
The sort who never could, ever would,
Take a position and staunchly never budge.
Just a “real” American.
But, I shall never take her back,
If she came begging for advice!
Let her promise me a place
In her presidential race
I will slam the door and Vote Obama twice!
(Spoken)
Sarah Palin! Hah!
(Sings)
But I'm so used to hearing Fox
And their faux scandals and shocks.
My vile attacks.
Her Joe Sixpacks
Are second nature to me now;
Like robo-calls and Town Hall meets.
I'm very grateful that I went to
Nam and was a tortured vet.
Surely that’s a tale that
I can still exploit-
And yet,
I've grown accustomed to the thought
Of “President McCain.”
Accustomed to this race.
(MCCAIN shuffles L and pauses to shake his head. PALIN enters DSR, crosses to MCCAIN and takes his hand as music gets louder. They both slowly exit L.)
THE CURTAIN FALLS.
© 2008, Christopher Stansfield. Some rights reserved. This work is licensed to the public under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License, and may only be distributed according to the terms of said license. To view a copy of this license, please click here.
No comments:
Post a Comment