RateItAll: The Opinion Network

Entertainers are usually more activist oriented, so by nature you would expect them to like the idea of government as a positive force for good in the world. That said, there aren't too many people out there who vote based on what their favorite pop culture icon says. Generally, devotees of that type stay away from the polls at any rate. Indeed Hollywood, with all of it's excesses are a rallying call for conservatives throughout the country. It doesn't really hurt, in fact , such opposition usually helps, especially if the celebrity in question is espeically clueless.

I don't think imbeciles like George Clooney, Bet Midler and Cameron Diaz telling people how to vote is really going to hurt Bush.

This doesn't harm Bush much. This admin is very adept creating the impression that actors somehow have no right to their opinions, no matter how well-informed those opinions may be. Unless the actor supports Bush, that actor is portrayed by the Bush team as a Hollyweird liberal type.

Read my comment on the mainstream media.

PBeav strikes again.

Liberal Pop Culture Icons are overrated. . .no one really takes them very seriously. Hey Bono, feel free to take your glasses off while indoors. . .

Little to no effect at all - from what I've noticed, the only people giving pop culture icons any airtime for their grievances have been the talk-show hosts on FoxNews... the rest of the media tends to ignore them to a very large extent. So if the vast majority of people hearing anything from celebrities are pre-disposed to have polar opposite opinions (as the average Fox viewer will), do the celebrities really matter? Nope.... Besides, as PBeavr stated, pop culture icons are totally the wrong place to be looking for advice with the trash that much of pop culture pushes nowadays.

For every hollywood celebrity with a liberal bias, there are five conservative pundits ready to ridicule them and accuse them of being elitist. Besides, Sean Penn is an extremely gifted actor and an intelligent man, but how much influence is he going to have on your average working joe from middle America? Or Susan Sarandon? Or Barbara Streisand?

Support from that direction actually sways me to think even less of whoever is receiving it. I've never voted according to anyone else's opinion - including my relatives and friends - who, for the most part, seem to have more sense than your average showbiz geek. Think for yourself first time voters - you have the ability to make an informed decision as much as any inflated ego Hollywood has produced.

If Julia Roberts wrote me a note letting me know where I could get the best burrito in San Francisco, I probably wouldn't put too much stock in what she said as this is not her area of expertise (though I would be oddly flattered). So likewise, you wouldn't think that people could be swayed in their politics by what an actor says. You wouldn't think, but you would be wrong. For whatever the reason, some people are obsessed with public figures to the point that their political views may actually be impacted by what some actor says. I would imagine this could be especially true of younger voters.