I know people make their voting choices for all kinds of strange reasons, but it’s still astounding that a relatively informed person would change their mind based on the “cool” factor (it’s not as if I like Obama, but this is bizarre). Matt Bai:
After Super Tuesday, I was surprised to find that a friend of mine, a lifelong Democrat who had been pledging his allegiance to Barack Obama all year, had stepped into the voting booth and suddenly changed is mind. He voted, instead, for Hillary Clinton, and here’s why: he’d watched that video online —you know, the one starring celebrities like will.i.am, Scarlett Johansson and Herbie Hancock—and he thought it made Obama look Hollywood smug, as if supporting him were this year’s version of wearing an AIDS ribbon on your lapel. My friend didn’t want anything to do with the latest chic cause, and he just couldn’t bring himself to pull the lever for the guy who now symbolized the things he liked least about Democratic politics, starting with all those stars who think they know more about America than the people who live in it.
Let me go on the record here as saying I don’t agree with this at all. Yeah, celebrities often endorse people without really knowing all that much about them, but I’ll defend their right to be as vehemently wrong as a guy in the local bar!
LOL! One of the things I don’t get about America is how certain career choices automatically make one an idiot when it come to politics.
Sure there are artists that aren’t that well informed but there are also plenty of other working Americans in every single industry equally uninformed. There are many artists that are very well informed much like many other working Americans.
It was bizarre for the voter to go with the “ewww so and so likes him so I can’t like him.” for his vote. I wonder what jobs he does approve of.
Since Hollywood is a marketing creation, why would any sane adult use input from there for decisions?
Yeah, but so are candidates marketing creations. That’s what I’m trying to explain here at this site.
Star (?) power: Actress Kelly Hu just appeared out here stumping for Obama. He’s already got a sister here doing the same.
The Clinton campaign countered with Chelsea; she’s off to a rally on Maui this morning.
In my mind, advantage: Clinton.
I would definitely go see Chelsea before Kelly Hu, but I’ll bet there are more uniformed stoned slackers tipped towards Obama than away from him by the coolness factor.
While I don’t like that aspect of any campaign it is real. The sax worked for Bill Clinton too.
… Chelsea’s off to a rally on Maui while the old fuddy-duddies are stuck in ice storms and frigid temperatures?
She’s obviously smart as well as cool.