Stephen King compares McCain to Nixon, Palin to apocalyptic character

By Jessica Alaimo, PolitickerME.com Reporter

UPDATE OCT. 25, 10:50 a.m.: Comments from Maine GOP chairman Mark Ellis – see below.

In an interview with Salon.com, Maine author Stephen King said the comparisons between President Richard Nixon’s campaigns and current Republican presidential candidate John McCain’s campaigns are “just depressing”. He said he drew the conclusion after reading the book “Nixonland”.

The interview was done in commemoration of the 30th anniversary of his novel “The Stand,” his most popular book about an end-of-the-world scenario where a flu virus is released from a U.S. military facility and wipes out almost all of the world’s population, setting the stage for a showdown between good and evil.

On McCain, King told Salon:

“He's doing a lot of events that are supposed to be populist but are in reality completely managed. He's got a vice president who's Joe Six-Pack. The parallels just go on and on. You've got the unpopular war, economic problems, gasoline problems. Whatever goes around, comes around. "The Stand" even says that. Life is like a wheel. Sooner or later, it always come around to where you started again."

He said “The Stand” was a political novel, and added: “There's that scene in ‘The Dead Zone’ where Johnny Smith sees Greg Stillson in the future starting a nuclear war. Around my house we kinda laugh when Sarah Palin comes on TV, and we say, ‘That's Greg Stillson as a woman.’”

Stillson is a character in King’s book “The Dead Zone”, who plays a rising politician who will eventually bring on Armageddon.

King and his wife, Tabitha, are Democrats and have given thousands of dollars to Democratic candidates this cycle, including U.S. Senate candidate Tom Allen (D-Portland) and 1st Congressional District candidate Chellie Pingree (D-North Haven).

UPDATE: Maine Republican Party chairman Mark Ellis has responded to King’s comments. In an e-mail, Ellis said the following should be read as a back cover testimonial on his books:

“A must-read masterpiece that chronicles the slipping of the last two fingers of Stephen King’s precarious grip on reality. Second only to Barack Obama himself, King delivers a world view dripping with liberal elitist funk that is certain to scare the hell out of every working family, taxpayer and small business in Maine!”

Jessica Alaimo is a PolitickerME.com Reporter and can be reached via email at noreply@politicker.com.

Post new comment

Most Active Stories

RSS Feeds

Comments

Post new comment