Video - Produced by Ron Howard and Funny or Die - March 2, 2010
Barack Obama gets a surprise visit in the night from ex-Presidents Bush 41 and 43, Clinton, Ford, Reagan and Carter.
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Video: Dana Carvey as George Bush 41
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Video: Behind the scenes video from the shoot
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Reagan says:
Obama seems unpersuaded by the ex-presidents, whose financial deregulation, beginning with Reagan and extending through Clinton and the Bushes, led to the current crisis.
"What you're saying is, I should take on this mess that you all created? Take on the banks and their trillions of dollars?" Obama says. "How's this helpful?" "It's a bitch. It's a bitch," says Reagan. "But as George Washington once said to John Adams: 'Tag. You're it.'"
Hollywood isn't generally known for precisely timed or well-defined campaigns aimed at specific legislative language as bills move through Congress. But the clip, directed by Ron Howard and written by Adam McKay and Al Jean, was produced in coordination with Americans for Financial Reform, a major pro-reform coalition based in Washington, and it hits just as Senate negotiators work toward a compromise on the CFPA in the Banking Committee.