Rock the Vote

Recently, some prominent musicians have been lending their support to presidential candidates. In particular, they have been lending their support to either of the democratic candidates. A couple of questions are raised from seeing this. First, what affect will the backing of a candidate by a celebrity that represents a certain demographic have an influence on how that sect of society? Also, why would any person be swayed to vote for one candidate because a certain celebrity endorses them. While people may like to think that they are similar to their favorite musician in many ways, the fact of the matter is that when it comes to how the major issues of the election will affect them they aren't in the same boat, or tax bracket for that matter, as their favorite musician.

Another celebrity endorsement that I thought was interesting came from an athlete, Greg Oden of the Portland Trail Blazers. Unlike musicians, athletes have always be hesitant to actively back political candidates. Michael Jordan was once quoted as saying that "Republicans buy shoes too". So for any athlete to back a candidate, let alone an NBA rookie who has yet to play a game, is extremely rare. I think it's great that Oden has done this because he is expressing his opinion about who he is going to vote for, but if you read his blog post he is in no way trying to sway people to support Barack Obama.