Best of Enemies, impeccably crafted by Morgan Neville and Robert Gordon, tells the story of the televised debates between Gore Vidal and William F. Buckley Jr. during the 1968 Republican and Democratic National Conventions. In order to create excitement for their coverage of the conventions, ABC decided to pit the two most entertaining political wits of their generation against each other. Buckley, the father of the modern conservative movement, ran the most influential rightwing magazine in the country, and his effete, WASP affect defined Ivy League country club Republicanism. He was witty, and as long as he wasn’t insulting you, very funny. Vidal was his perfect foil: An erudite bon vivant, he was Jackie Kennedy’s cousin, a barely closeted gay man (in 1968!), and the author of Myra Breckinridge, the scandalous, high-camp satirical novel about transsexuality.
