Buckley/Vidal: Best of Enemies

I just saw a documentary on Netflix called Best of Enemies. It chronicles the debates that the then (and now) loser network called the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) set up for the Republican and Democrat national conventions in the pivotal 1968 presidential elections.

They chose two of the most intelligent people from either side. For the left, Gore Vidal, the prolific postmodern author and for the right: William F. Buckley, Jr, the writer and editor of National Review, the definitive conservative (read, ‘Classic Liberal‘) magazine.

This ‘docco’ was interesting, explosive and focused in it’s discussion of the debates themselves and the presidential election cycle surrounding them. If you don’t have Neflix, you can see it here via YouTube. This version isn’t perfect (the frame is zoomed-in on itself, missing peripheral images)…but you’ll get the gist. However you watch it, it is a must-see for historians and classic liberals.

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