Cheney Spins the Apocalypse!A Slate contest for The Day After Tomorrow.

Faux Cheney: peculiar weather we're havingThe Day After Tomorrow has one of the most absurd and implausible plot turns I've seen in a movie, ever. Global warming melts the polar ice caps, which makes the oceans rise and disrupts the Gulf Stream. There are lethal hail stones in Tokyo and ravaging tornadoes in L.A.; and after New York City is flooded by sea water, the temperature plunges at a rate of 10 degrees per second so that people are transformed into ice sculptures where they stand. Tens of millions are dead, and the upper United States is uninhabitable. Now, here's the implausible part. The vice president (Kenneth Welsh), who is closely modeled on Dick Cheney, who has pooh-poohed all evidence of global warming, goes on TV and says, "I was wrong."

PRINTDISCUSSE-MAILRSSRECOMMEND...SINGLE PAGE

FacebookMySpace Mixx Digg Reddit del.icio.us Furl Ma.gnolia SphereStumbleUponCLOSE

What would Dick Cheney actually say? How would he spin it? Whom would he blame? What would he acknowledge or fail to acknowledge in the face of an actual environmental apocalypse?

Send us your version of Dick Cheney's address to the nation at the start of the new ice age to (please put "Cheneyspeak Contest" in the subject line) no later than tomorrow (May 27) at 5 p.m. ET. The author of the pithiest and most characteristic statement will win a copy of The Deluxe Election-Edition Bushisms by Slate editor Jacob Weisberg. The winner and runners-up will be posted along with my review of the movie around 7 p.m. ET.

FacebookMySpace Mixx Digg Reddit del.icio.us Furl Ma.gnolia SphereStumbleUponCLOSE

SPONSORED CONTENT

• The Red Riding trilogy
  Like The Wire but British.
  Dana Stevens | Feb. 5, 2010
• Dear John
  This is the hardest letter I've ever had to write …
  Dana Stevens | Feb. 4, 2010
• 44 Inch Chest
  It's no Sexy Beast.
  Dana Stevens | Jan. 29, 2010
• Search for more Movies articles
• Subscribe to the Movies RSS feed
• View our complete Movies archive