Political Endorsements -- Shut your pie hole already!

Carrie Underwood said she'd have no respect for you if you publicly endorse any candidate.

I do think she has a point about all the celebrity-politics craze at the moment, with some celebs sounding semi-informed (very, very, very few -- did I say very?), while others just come off as being downright stupid.

I, too, have reservations about political candidates becoming more a commodity for sale (in terms of trying to get elected and getting campaign money), rather than having an honest debate and comparison about the policies and philosophy that they represent. People that know me knows that "well the other side is doing it too" is never a good enough excuse for doing it.

Now, when it comes to endorsement as a general concept, I take issue with Underwood's issue with any person, organization, etc. endorsing a candidate.

First, there's the First Amendment. But of course the First Amendment only says that Ms. Underwood has to tolerate, but not like or respect, anyone for anything they say. That said, having no respect for anyone exercising their freedom of speech is like not having respect for the First Amendment. (I'm stretching it I know, but I'm making just as much sense as Ms. Underwood herself).

But more importantly, an endorsement (to me anyway) has always to do with information sharing and signaling than brand recognition and selling. It says "look, people that know me knows my character. I am telling you now that I think this candidate's character, philosophies, political objectives, etc. align most closely with mine. I think he/she is a good candidate for reasons X,Y, and Z, and I'm willing to vouch for him/her with my reputation." It is a reduced-form, cost-saving mechanism to increase the level of reach among the population.

Endorsements of this kind focus on the candidate, what the candidate is about, and really more about sharing information about the candidate (I'd like to say "facts" but I know we don't live in a perfect world), highlighting things that you like about him/her. An excellent example of such endorsements is one by Colin Powell.

What endorsements should not be is "look at ME!!! You gotta vote for X because I said so." Here's the golden example of one such egocentric, uninformed, and unhelpful endorsement.

If we all listened to Ms. Underwood and kept our mouth shut, most of this country will become like this. Oh wait, I think this is already what a sizable chunk of America is like. But hey, let's not make it worse than it already is.