McCain: Got that goin’ for me

US Presidential candidate John McCain gets as close as you can get to an endorsement from the Dalai Lama as reported in James Taranto’s Life imitates Caddychack item. More importantly, Taranto gets Greenskeeper Carl’s famous speech – perhaps the most zen-perfect marriage of character, performance and dialog in comedy - back out front of the culture where it belongs:

Life Imitates ‘Caddyshack’

• ”So I jump ship in Hong Kong and make my way over to Tibet, and I get on as a looper at a course over in the Himalayas. A looper, you know, a caddy, a looper, a jock. So, I tell them I’m a pro jock, and who do you think they give me? The Dalai Lama, himself. Twelfthson of the Lama. The flowing robes, the grace, bald–striking. So, I’m on the first tee with him. I give him the driver. He hauls off and whacks one–big hitter, the Lama–long, into a 10,000-foot crevasse, right at the base of this glacier. Do you know what the Lama says? ‘Gunga galunga, gunga, gunga-galunga.’ So we finish the 18th and he’s gonna stiff me. And I say, ‘Hey, Lama, hey, how about a little something, you know, for the effort, you know.’ And he says, ‘Oh, uh, there won’t be any money, but when you die, on your deathbed, you will receive total consciousness.’ So I got that goin’ for me, which is nice.”–Carl Spackler (Bill Murray), “Caddyshack,” 1980
 
• ” ’I urge the Chinese government to release Tibetan political prisoners, account for Tibetans who have, quote, “disappeared” since protests in March, and engage in meaningful dialogue on genuine autonomy for Tibet,’ McCain said. The Dalai Lama praised McCain for his concern–while emphasizing he wasn’t endorsing McCain’s presidential bid.”–Associated Press, July 25, 2008