Donald Trump’s inauguration is still a week away, but opposing the president-elect is good politics for any ambitious Democrat with eyes on a White House bid, NBC News reported. That could be why some of the most outspoken opposition to Trump’s cabinet appointees during this week’s confirmation hearings has come from Democrats widely seen as potential presidential contenders four years from now. New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker was the most brazen in using the confirmation hearings to raise his personal profile, breaking precedent to become the first senator in history testify against a fellow member of the chamber. He was swarmed by reporters as he left the hearing room where he spoke out against Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions, Trump’s pick for Attorney General. But other up-and-coming senators often mentioned in Democrats’ 2020 fantasy draft picks leveraged the spotlight on their committees’ hearings to press their issues and demonstrate their rhetorical chops.
A mere Oscars snub isn't in the same universe as the indignities suffered by the African-American women whose key contributions to the United States' space program went largely unheralded for decades.
Yet there's a bitter tinge of irony in Academy Awards voters' failure to nominate Taraji P. Henson for Best Actress honors for her lead role in "Hidden Figures."
Henson played real-life hero Katherine Johnson, a mathematician who bore sexism and racism behind the scenes at NASA while computing trajectories that helped launch the nation to new heights. By failing to reward Henson’s standout performance amid a top-notch cast, Oscar badly miscalculated.
Sure, the film notched a Best Picture nomination, and Octavia Spencer earned a deserved Best Supporting Actress nod for her portrayal of Dorothy Vaughan, a pioneering self-taught computer whiz. Yet, the lack of a nomination for director Theodore Melfi doesn't bode well for the hopes of "Hidden Figures" in the crowded Best Picture field.
That's a shame: "Hidden Figures" offers a rare high-quality, critically acclaimed film that's also a box office hit – No. 1 for the last two weeks.
The movie speaks to mass audiences, thanks in large part to Henson's exceptional, understated performance. The actress, best known as the volatile Cookie on Fox's "Empire," puts on a master class in a subtle character-build as the brilliant-but-shy Johnson goes from suffering in silence during half-mile dashes to a blacks-only women's room to asserting herself when she finds that NASA's numbers don't add up.
Without giving away too much, the film draws straight from history – including John Glenn specifically seeking Johnson’s help in 1962 before he took a leap of faith in the Mercury capsule Friendship 7 and became the first American to orbit Earth.
Too bad Oscar voters didn't directly recognize Henson's work when, in Hollywood terms, it mattered most.
Jere Hester is Director of News Products and Projects at the City University of New York Graduate School of Journalism. He is also the author of "Raising a Beatle Baby: How John, Paul, George and Ringo Helped us Come Together as a Family." Follow him on Twitter.
