Arnold’s done it, Teddy, too. Richardson might, Edwards, he’s
not talking. We’ve heard from an Eisenhower, way too many Kennedy’s,
Oprah, of course, who started this nonsense. Just about the only celebrity
political or otherwise not to weigh in on the Democratic election is Big
Bird himself. But don’t despair, there’s still an eleventh hour
tweet-tweet that yet may come.
I thought that what we had here was a campaign to
become the President of the United States. Instead, this thing is starting
to sound like a run for the best light bulb, or appliance, the only
endorsement missing the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval.
When Rory Kennedy
endorsed Obama that was it for me. Who, I want to know is Rory Kennedy?
Someone who by birth inherited the Kennedy name, which makes her
endorsement mean what?
This endorsement
thing is out of control. Celebrities use it to give themselves status,
candidates use it to prove themselves somehow more worthy. And Americans
foolishly act as if when a celebrity with the stature of Oprah Winfrey weighs in (couldn’t resist) we need
to listen to what she has to say because Oprah somehow knows what is best
for us.
Frankly, I find the notion insulting.
Nominating someone
to run for the highest office in the land shouldn’t be about what someone
else thinks. Who we pick to lead us should be our most personal decision.
Pollsters say that in the end celebrity endorsements
don’t matter much to the voters. I think maybe that is true in a normal
election year. But there is nothing normal about this cycle, or how
celebrity endorsements are being used.
The Obama Campaign
is particularly offensive in the way they have tried to manipulate the
minds of the voters. First there was Oprah, the most successful
African-American in the world who waddled out on behalf of Senator Obama,
and issued the opening salvo of the race card.
The beginning of
Barack Obama’s ascendancy to where he is today can be traced back to Oprah
standing before the black crowds in South Carolina and speaking in code
that it was all right to vote for a black man who with their vote could
make it to the nomination.
Prior to Ms.
Winfrey’s appearance there had been a resistance by the black community to
Senator Obama’s candidacy fearing that a vote for Obama would be a
wasted vote because a black man couldn’t get the nomination. Her
endorsement paid off in
South Carolina,
with the unwitting help of Bill Clinton.
Following Ms. Winfrey’s endorsement was a blitz of
endorsements for the young Senator culminating in the Ted Kennedy nod and
all the other Kennedy declarations for Senator Obama and for Senator Hillary
Clinton.
Eventually there comes a time when you have to ask yourself why a campaign
continues to elicit and brag about their many endorsements, as the Obama
Campaign has.
Endorsement overload is off-putting and can even make you wonder if
the campaign is trying to cover up for its candidates weaknesses. And that
is what seems to be clear here. Obama, his own campaign knows, is lacking
in gravitas, and therefore what he doesn’t have, the campaign will
manufacture.
As for me, I wish
Senator Obama would just stand on his own two feet…like Big Bird.
Tweet-Tweet.
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