Wilford Brimley is still alive?

Seriously, why should anybody give two shakes of Jenna Jameson's bottom what any of these "celebrities" think? These people have spent their entire lives clawing their way to some level of prominence in cut-throat fields (music, movies, TV, sports) filled with jackasses and which are, by and large, anti-intellectual and entirely self-congratulatory. Suddenly, their opinion about who should be making decisions about healthcare reform, the economy, and foreign quagmires is supposed to mean something? Why aren't more people in the media calling BS on these clowns?

Vernon - Would their opinions carry more weight with you if they made less money/were less “artistic”.  Smells kind of elitist to me.

I could care less about their money ... I have no idea what you mean by "artistic", so I can't address that. Anyway, the basic point is that there's no reason at all to suppose that humps like Hulk Hogan, Ric Flair, Jenna Jameson, Oprah, Wilford Brimley, George Clooney at al have any greater insight into what makes for a good candidate than the rest of us. So, why should anyone give a damn about what they have to say? In fact, given how detached most celebrities are from the world that the rest of us inhabit, I'd say there's plenty of reason for thinking that none of them is qualified to speak on anything beyond their own very restricted domain of "expertise".

If it's elitist to want our political discourse to include more input from genuinely knowledgeable sources (most of whom are ignored or marginalized by the mainstream media, of course, because you can't sell tampon or beer commercials for a reasoned, fact-based discussion) and to exclude distracting noise (i.e., the blatherings of the self-important celebrity class), yeah, I'm an elitist.

I'll tell you what cracks me up. The Republican "celebrities" in 2004 who were put on display at the convention. Ron Silver? If you held a gun (thanks 2nd amendment!)to my head, I couldn't tell you what he's famous for. Bo Derek? Stephen "Least talented brother" Baldwin? That actress who played Ray Romano's wife who did a couple of Ralph's commercials? And then the Republicans were all "see, we have celebrities too, and isn't Bo Derek still hot for a fifty something year old?" I'm looking forward to more heavy hitters this year, like the actor who played Inmate #47 in the third season of OZ or the actress who played Nervous Bank Teller on an episode of CSI Miami.