Who is Fred for? Find out next week and vote accordingly!
Marty Peretz, a journalist for "The New Republic" is on an absolute snit because some show business types are busy already endorsing candidates for President in 2008. He is particularly upset that Steven Spielberg endorsed Hillary Clinton, a movie, I mean a move, that I'm sure will have a profound effect on two or three dozen voters in the greater Santa Monica area.
Anyway, take it away Marty:
"The drama over who Spielberg is supporting for president is something I just don't understand. Is Spielberg a political tactician or a moral philosopher? Why should his writing checks and, if he's not too busy, actually voting for Hillary be of such interest? But, as I said above, maybe it isn't. Or some people might be interested in what a celebrity does but don't truly care about why he does it. Like trawling the Hollywood hills gawking at homes of the stars. The same Post article tells us that, among Hillary's other Hollywood backers, are also Eva Longoria and Mike Myers. All I can say is "Wow!" again. I don't know who these folks are either. "
I guess Marty is too busy writing screeds to watch any of the "Austin Powers" movies or catch the odd episode of the sudsy "Desperate Housewives", where Ms. Longoria is a featured player. He could also have caught her briefly in the stands watching her fiancee, San Antonio Spurs guard Tony Parker, pick up an MVP award for his play in the recent NBA Championships. Guess he was translating Proust or something. Well, I only caught bits and pieces myself.
By the way, not knowing who someone is--or pretending you don't for effect--doesn't make it righteous to ridicule them for having an opinion. It does make you sound like a bit of a snob, though, to assume because someone endorses a candidate from either party (and isn't a pundit) that makes them dumb or uninformed.
Marty, Marty, Marty, I'd like to say to this guy. Relax, dude. None of the celebrities mentioned in the article is a tactician or a moral philosopher. (And I sincerely doubt you qualify, either, in the latter category for sure.)
Steven Spielberg is a guy who is famous enough to issue press releases about candidates he likes, just as no doubt other Hollywood types and Nashville superstars and media heavy hitters will come out for other candidates. (Hey, Tom Selleck, Drew Carey and Chuck Norris, it's never too early to jump on the Thompson or McCain bandwagon!)
And it's totally cool, Marty, whoever can get a crowd of press to care about a statement they make on the election next November. Its a First Amendment thing, just like your right to ridicule Spielberg for making a morally complex film like "Munich", which I guess wasn't the clear-cut "good guys versus the bad guys" thing you hoped it would be.
Truth is we live not in Plato's state of guardians who choose a philosopher-king; we live in a country where anybody over 18 whose not in jail can vote for President. (Although only half of them bother to vote, no matter how much Barbra Streisand or Toby Keith might want them to badly do so, albeit for totally different candidates. ) And, as I intimated before, few people really care who celebrity X or Y endorses. The entertainment media (I know, that's redundant) does care I admit, but they have to fill a twenty-four hour news cycle and you can only do so much cutting back and forth between Paris Hilton in jail and Bob Barker retiring.
God knows I agree with Mr. Peretz on one thing--its too early to be coming out with statements about the election and we have plenty of national issues to worry about before we even get to the polls next November. (Just one of which being the obscenely early primaries that will occur in major states like Florida, California and Texas, ET AL in February. ) I never thought I'd say this but I miss having the long, drawn-out primary season that once placed too much emphasis on the Iowa Caucus and the New Hampshire primary. Now it appears the nominees will be decided for each major party very, very early. We are likely headed for about seven months of buyer's remorse in this next Presidential election. Worry about that, I recommend, not which presidential candidate gets the biggest turn out in Malibu for their fundraiser.
The full article is below. Personally, I'm not endorsing any candidate until next Wednesday: that's when my wife and I are going to a Madame Ousenskya, a local Palm Reader/Medium. She is going to channel the ghost of Fred Astaire to see who he is pulling for next year.
"Heaven...I'm in Heaven..."
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