Celebrity candidates a unique breed. Would you vote for Ventura for Prez? What about Erika for Congress?

I’ll confess to not fully understanding the concept of “celebrity” political candidates.

Sen. Ditka? Who's kidding whom!

 
By that, I mean the type of person who has accomplished something in some field that put them in the public eye. Which makes them think they can turn that public attention into votes to get themselves elected to political office.

HECK, THE PEOPLE of Minnesota got one-time pro wrestler Jesse Ventura for four years as their governor – and he’s inspired enough by that victory that he’s now going around talking about wanting to run for president come 2016.

With broadcaster Howard Stern as his vice-presidential running mate, nonetheless. Although I’ve also heard speculation that rocker Ted Nugent also is contemplating a presidential bid to espouse his love of firearms.

I don’t see either one of them seriously being capable of holding elective office, although I’m sure there are some knuckleheads in our society who will cast ballots for them just for kicks.

Which is what it all comes down to with these types of campaigns. I’m sure some will try to claim that Barack Obama’s presidential campaigns are the same thing in that he developed celebrity status while on the campaign trail that encouraged some to vote for him – but they really aren’t.

BUT THE FACT remains that we occasionally get these types of people thinking they are somehow fit for public office. And I can’t always predict how seriously they will be taken.

Take Mike Ditka, who actually had some Republican operatives back in 2004 trying to encourage him to run for the U.S. Senate seat from Illinois after GOP nominee Jack Ryan’s campaign fizzled out (due to the actions that occurred during his marriage to celebrity actress Jeri Ryan).

Ditka didn’t take the bait – thereby sparing himself a likely defeat to the very same Obama in his pre-presidential days who had already begun to establish the aura that has persuaded many people to cast their votes for him.



The Libertarian duo?

Although I find it humorous that Ditka in recent days has felt compelled to spew rhetoric implying he should have run – because he could have somehow spared us all the concept of a “President Obama.”

DOES DITKA THINK that sucking up to the ideologues by feeding their fantasies will somehow encourage the political operatives to consider him as a candidate for office in some future election cycle?

Or was Ditka just bored enough to the point where he felt compelled to share his fantasies with all of us. My own fantasies involve a Pulitzer Prize or two, but I don’t feel compelled to write rants telling you about the stories I could have covered that might have won me that top prize!

It makes me wonder why some people feel compelled to spout nonsense. Although I realize they’re trying to appeal to the kinds of people who don’t really understand government operations and probably resent the fact that government has influence over their lives.

Dumbing it down to the level of voting for a Ventura, or contemplating a Ditka may simplify it in their own minds – even if it would do nothing for public policy.

YET THE STANDARDS of fluff fluctuate.

 

I suspect many of the same people who want to take seriously the idea of a “Sen. Mike Ditka” are the same ones who are dumping on the congressional campaign of Erika Harold.

HAROLD: Seeking a higher title

She is the Miss America from 2003 (2002’s “Miss Illinois”) who has since graduated from Harvard, worked for a time as an attorney in Chicago, and has since returned to her hometown of Urbana so that she can seriously run as a Republican for Congress.

We in Chicago would have treated her like a complete joke if she had run a GOP campaign for one of the city’s congressional districts.

THE DENIZENS OF east-central Illinois are getting all worked up over the thought that Harold would take on freshman Rep. Rodney Davis, R-Ill. The ideologues want him to be able to build up seniority instead of having Harold dump him – even though any serious reading of her own philosophical beliefs indicate she sides with them on so many issues.

Davis, of course, is one of the GOP Congress members who faces harm due to the federal government shutdown. Which makes me wonder if Harold could capitalize on this.

 

Too bad she didn't wear an Illini t-shirt

Or will it be one of the Democrats seeking that post who will manage to prevail.

Because it seems that some people are just having too much trouble taking seriously the notion of a “Miss America” in the House of Representatives. I can’t figure if it’s her racial background (she’s not lily white) or just her gender (they’d love her as a politician’s spouse).

ALTHOUGH IT PROBABLY makes as much sense (if not more, considering Harold’s actual education and work experiences) than having a one-time New Orleans Saint coach in the Senate – which would have only one possible benefit.

It is about the only way we in Illinois would ever get a “Saint” amongst any of our government officials.

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Midwest U.S. “immune” to Romney charm? Or will we “clinch” it for him?

It will be intriguing to see the next pair of states where voters will express their opinions about which Republican should get the chance to face off against President Barack Obama.

Not only do they provide significant amounts of drinking water, the Great Lakes states voters also tend to influence who wins presidential elections.

For we’re talking about a pair of our sister states at work. No more of these Anglos out west who like to think they’re descended from the original settlers or these Southerners who are a breed in-and-of themselves.

FOR ON TUESDAY, voters in Missouri will participate in elections, and there will be caucuses in Minnesota and Colorado.

I couldn’t help but notice a New York Times commentary whose point was that the Midwestern U.S. was the one region of the country where Mitt Romney hadn’t managed to win anything (his Iowa “victory” by 8 votes is now believed to be a “loss” by 23).

The newpaper seems to think that news fit to print includes speculation that those two states could provide victories for another campaign (perhaps even Rick Santorum) that could make the GOP a suddenly-competitive fight all over again.

I’m not sure I buy into that theory. But I am curious to see how competitive the campaigns are in those states – particularly since they are ones where people can draw some comparisons to the types of people who vote in Illinois.

SINCE IT IS uncertain whether there will still be competitive primaries by the time Illinois comes about on March 20 (despite Newt Gingrich’s promise to pull a Hillary Clinton of ’08 and stay in the campaign to the bitter end), Tuesday might be the closest we get to seeing how we’d vote – for those of us who would be inclined to pick an “R” ballot, rather than a “D,” for Election Day.

For the record, Minnesota has been one of those states in recent presidential election cycles where Republican candidates have been competitive, but ultimately lost out to Democratic alternatives.

Missouri is just the opposite – a place where the GOP picks have won, but by narrow margins. Close enough, in fact, that I’m sure Democrats there are optimistic that they can ultimately put the state in line with Obama come the Nov. 6 general elections.

Will either state give any of the GOP dreamers a large-enough margin of support to be able to claim a definitive victory? Will Romney finally be able to come to a state where there is a mix of urban and rural (rather than domination by one faction or the other) and be able to claim a solid margin of support that would justify the belief that he really is the inevitable Republican pick to run for president?

I WONDER IF Missouri could be the place that could finally give him that 50 percent-plus vote that he so desperately needs to get in a state. For as long as all of his opponents gather more votes combined than he does, it doesn’t matter how Mitt spins it.

The truth will be a political party whose hard-core wants Anybody But Mitt to run for president – no matter how laughable any of those “anybodys” would appear to be in a head-to-head campaign against Obama.

I’m also going to be curious to see what voter turnout is like in the states of the Great Lakes region of the nation. Tuesday could be our first glimpse on what real Midwesterners think about this whole situation, particularly in Missouri. I can’t help but think that caucuses – while cutesy – only tell us what the most hard-core of political geeks think about an election; rather than real people.

For I recall the Obama campaign of 2008 being one that unified the Midwestern U.S. We all came together to back the senator from Illinois for president over the guy from Arizona whom even his own political party wasn’t really that enthused about (just like this year, it seems).

HECK, EVEN INDIANA fell into the Obama column for the general election that year – which was a first since 1964, the year that Barry Goldwater (another Arizonan) did his ideological number on the nation.

I expect the Hoosier State will revert back to its GOP leaning ways come Nov. 6. But can a Republican presidential hopeful manage to split up the rest of the Midwest? Or will a sense of “unity” for a regional counterpart remain in place?

If one of them can stir up the interest of Midwesterners and get people to the polls, then perhaps the Republican challenger (whichever one of the GOP goofs it turns out to be) can manage to make Obama an observer on Inauguration Day in 2013.

Otherwise, we’ll get “four more years” of Obama, and we’ll see how long it will take (personally, I’ll place my bet on “one week or less”) after that date for Republicans to shift into a mode where they try to “Impeach Obama!” (just like Earl Warren) during a second term in office.

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15 months to go, yet Obama already in campaign mode with Midwest journey

Officially, this is not a campaign stunt.

OBAMA: A 3-day Midwest tour


President Barack Obama’s three-day tour by bus of the Midwest is meant to give the chief executive a chance to see with his own eyes just what is happening “out there” in middle America in the wake of all the partisan nonsense that has taken place in the District of Columbia with regards to federal finances and the debt ceiling.

YET WE ALL know that these appearances he is making in assorted small towns that usually don’t get a real live president within their boundaries are going to have the feel of campaign stunts.

Obama wants to use his charm and personality to try to ease the amount of resentment that Republican critics are trying to stir up against the man as their own  party’s presidential dreamers are kicking their own campaigns into gear.

Think of this tour as the antidote to all the rhetoric we’ve heard the past couple of days about how Michelle Bachmann is now a fully-legitimate candidate because she won that straw poll at the Iowa State Fair.

That “win” had so much clout that it actually motivated one of the legitimate GOP presidential candidates (former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty) to drop out.

SO OBAMA WANTS to try to push back before that kind of rhetoric starts to gain too much momentum. Getting buried in bull may be absurd, but it can be politically fatal.

Which is why Obama’s trip (which was planned in advance of that straw poll) comes at a perfect time, as he arrived in Minneapolis on Monday, then boarded the bus upon which he will live through Wednesday – which is the day that he will venture back into his home state of Illinois.

BACHMANN: Obama's opponent?

It also comes at a time when news accounts are being published about the Gallup Organization identifying 12 states that could decide the 2012 presidential elections – states that theoretically could swing to either candidate.

One of the states they identified was Iowa, while also acknowledging that Minnesota is a state taken by Obama in 2008 but that experienced some shifts in partisanship in the 2010 election cycle.

ILLINOIS GETS INCLUDED just because he’s going to be so close to home (in Peosta, Iowa on Tuesday to partake in an economic forum along with Agriculture Secretary – and former Iowa Governor – Tom Vilsack) that we would feel offended if he didn’t drop by.

Atkinson and Alpha – to be exact. He’ll visit those two rural towns on Wednesday before returning to Washington, which in recent years has only paid attention to Northwestern Illinois when the federal government tried to buy the empty state prison in Thompson from Illinois government.

Now I’ll be the first to admit these various forums and town hall meetings are going to be so heavily staged that we’re not going to learn much from the programming itself.

If there is one thing we should pay attention to is the reaction that Obama draws in the surrounding area. Because I have no doubt that the people who get into the events themselves are going to be those partisans who will be on their best behavior.

IT WILL BE others in the area who will have the potential to stir up trouble and express their resentment toward Obama – much of which is due to the fact that he won at all in ’08. And there really isn’t any evidence that the resentment among the people who were against him in the beginning has subsided.

I don’t think an Obama visit this week will reduce the resentment significantly.

If anything, I think the point to having the president in Cannon Falls, Minn., was to appease perhaps just enough people that the urban voter base of Minneapolis and St. Paul that would be inclined to back Obama next year will be significant enough for Obama to “win” Minnesota.

Let’s remember that the Electoral College is a “winner take all” affair.

THE SAME LOGIC goes for Obama’s Iowa appearances on Tuesday, and perhaps even his Illinois stops on Wednesday – although in the latter case I think it is evident that the Chicago metropolitan area has become so large in this state that it shall overcome.

VILSACK: An Obama boost?



The key for Obama in Illinois may well be suburban appearances, particularly in those outer suburbs that once regarded themselves as rural towns; and which some long-time residents wish they could still be.

But with 15 months to go until Election Day, there is still plenty of time for those appearances to take place.

Considering that we got buried in presidential minutia out of Iowa this weekend, I think it won’t be long before we’re all sick and tired of campaign activity before it really gets started.

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