Política e celebridades

A opinião de Laura Ries (acima) sobre a relevância das celebridades nas presentes primárias norte-americanas:

Are celebrity endorsements good or bad for candidates?

They are both.

Good because if everyone, including celebrities, is endorsing a candidate it enhances his or her appearance as the leader and a winner. And everybody loves to jump on the bandwagon of a winner. A winner is presumed to be on the side of truth, righteousness and justice.

Bad because too many times the celebrity overshadows the candidate. In order to win, the candidate needs to be the real celebrity. A candidate cannot win by association.

That's Hillary Clinton’s biggest problem. Bill Clinton is a major celebrity and is overshadowing her. And when Bill is around Hillary is put in the position of playing second fiddle. The more Bill campaigns for Hillary the worse things get for Hillary.

When George W. Bush ran for president, his dad, the former President, was nowhere to be seen. And that was a good thing. It allowed George W. to shine on his own without being overshadowed by his father. Believe me it sucks to be upstaged by your dad on stage.

The brilliance of Obama is not that he gets a lot celebrity endorsements. It is the opposite. Obama is the rock star, Obama is the celebrity. Obama doesn’t need celebrities to get people to come to his rallies. People are filling football stadiums just to see the guy.