Use Your Allusions, Volume 1

On March 28, Democratic frontrunner Barack Obama quipped that the primary race felt like "a good movie that lasted about a half an hour too long."

True enough, but what movie?

Prompted by Hollywood Elsewhere's Jeffrey Wells, whose film-obsessed readers have compared Clinton and Obama to cinematic characters in everything from Orson Welles' Touch of Evil to Robert Downey's Putney Swope to Star Trek, it's clear that it's not just one movie—it's pretty much every movie ever.

"Many voters decided last week to stick with Obama despite his less-than-convincing explanations about the Rev. Wright—even as many soured on Hillary, casting her as Lady Voldemort."–Maureen Dowd, March 30, 2008.

"Her favorite [movie] as a girl was 'The Wizard of Oz,' so surely she spots the 'Surrender Dorothy' sign in the sky..."–ibid.

Earlier: "It’s impossible to imagine The Terminator, as a former aide calls [Hillary Clinton], giving up. Unless every circuit is out, she’ll regenerate enough to claw her way out of the grave, crawl through the Rezko Memorial Lawn and up Obama’s wall, hurl her torso into the house and brutally haunt his dreams."– Maureen Dowd, March 23, 2008.

"This is the scene in the movie where the doctor is standing over the patient, desperately trying to revive someone who's already flat-lined on the monitor. Eventually, someone tells the doctor, 'The patient's gone, doctor. It's over.'– Talking Points Memo reader MF, March 30, 2008.

"Rocky [Balboa] and I have a lot in common. I never quit. I never give up. And neither do the American people."– Hillary Clinton, quoted by AP, April 1, 2008.