http://www.boston.com/movies/display?display=movie&id=9729"With cameras along for the ride, Smith, a 29-year-old Missouri activist and teacher with no elective experience, decides to pursue the US House seat vacated by Dick Gephardt's retirement. He assembles a low-budget staff of similarly untested newcomers, then jumps into a crowded pool of candidates that includes both the robotic son of a powerful political family (Russ Carnahan) and another Smith (Mark) with a bigger resume. To many, Jeff Smith seems intelligent, sincere, eloquent, and committed. But others see an unproven risk the Democratic Party can't afford to take, compounded by the fact that he's too short, too boyish looking, and speaks with a high-pitched lisp.
The grass - roots movement that rises up to make Jeff Smith a top contender is enormously impressive, as is the even handed way that Popper portrays this sometimes naive collection of youthful staff and volunteers. Door-to-door and via phone, coffees, lawn signs, direct mail, and the endorsement of Howard Dean, they nearly upend the status quo, even though all along the way they show their immaturity, too.
It's the unfiltered combination of these elements that makes Popper's "Mr. Smith" so fascinating and credible. And whether or not you know the outcome of this election going in, you come away believing that even if Mr. Smith can't get all the way to Washington, he can still raise a shout that will."
There may be immaturity, as the article says....but there is something special in campaigns like this that the more experienced don't have. Several somethings in fact...sincerity, realness, openness, blunt talking. A lot of us really like those characteristics.
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