Democrats stand in line to hiss Bush on the big screen

FT.com Home UK: "Michael Moore has proved that he can win over audiences in Cannes, Los Angeles and New York. But can the polemical film-maker influence the outcome of the US presidential election?

Mr Moore's new documentary, Fahrenheit 9/11, is not due to be released in cinemas until next Friday. But in the past few weeks Hollywood celebrities and members of the political and media elite have been flocking to private screenings of the film, a critical and caustic indictment of the presidency of George W. Bush.

At a screening in New York this week the well-heeled but partisan crowd - one member of the audience described them as 'limousine liberals' - hissed whenever cabinet members such as Donald Rumsfeld and Condoleezza Rice appeared on screen, and applauded every suggestion that Mr Bush might not win re-election to the presidency in November.

Mr Moore's new status as the darling of the Democratic party reveals the polarisation that has taken place in American politics since the last election, when he threw his support behind Ralph Nader, the consumer activist and Green party candidate."

By Peter Thal Larsen

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