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Opening Arguments

Carey on

I was glad to learn that one of my favorite comedians got a long-lasting and well-paying gig. I doubt that even Drew Carey's being the host would make me want to watch "The Price Is Right," but it might make me hate it less.

Carey is one of the more famous self-identified libertarians. One reason it is hard to take the Libertarian Party as seriously as it would like to be considered is that it doesn't recruit famous people to carry its national banner. Carey is doing too well to go into politics, but Hoyt Axton, the singer-songwriter, might have have been persuaded. Clint Eastwood would clearly not be interested, or Tom Selleck, either. But how about Penn Gillette? Instead, the party recruits doctors and real estate salesmen, seeming much more interested in pushing its ideas than in actually winning elections.

The party is much more credible at the local level. And given the strong anti-incumbent feeling in Indiana right now, we might see a candidate or two do well in City Council races throughout the state.

My favorite story about Carey is that he had corrective eye surgery but kept his glasses anyway because they had become some a trademark. But that turns out to be only partly true:

Carey has had refractive surgery to correct his vision and therefore did not really require glasses (any glasses he wore in public were merely props to help the audience recognize him), however, whilst this was true for several years, on the May 17,  2006 episode of the Jimmy Kimmel Live show he revealed that when he turned 40, he actually developed a need for bifocals.

I can relate to that. I still maintain my facade as an aging, balding, white male because that's who my readers are comfortable with, even though I was abducted by aliens in 1972 and transformed into a 7-foot Asian woman who can bend space and time.

Comments

A J Bogle
Mon, 07/30/2007 - 9:18am

I remember catching Carey before he got big (in the fame sense) at Snickers. He was hilarious and I remember thinking - this guy is going somewhere. Glad to see him moving on from his show and into new things.

You are right - there is a very strong anti incumbancy mood throughout the state and country. The Presidents and the Congressional approval numbers are at historic lows - thus if there was ever a better time for a third party to make some gains it is now.

I happen to agree with many of the key issues of the Libertarian party - Fiscal responsibility and minimal taxation, avoidance of foreign entanglements and nation building, minimal government interference in personal lives, seperation of church and state, ending this wasteful and ridiculous war on drugs, border security, getting out of these so called "free" trade agreements like nafta, cafta, china's MFN status and the WTO that have devastated our manufacturing base and harm the middle and working classes.

Ron Paul is the candidate that supports these issues, and while he is gaining in popularity in the blogosphere, he is virtually ignored in the mainstream press. Ron Paul is the heir to Goldwater republicanism and Buckley Libertarianism, that has been sadly hijacked by the religious right and neo-conservatism - neo-conservatism of course has more in common with old school liberalism than it does true conservatism

We do need more high profile people to carry the Libertarian banner to move away from the kook status that third parties often engender.

CED
Mon, 07/30/2007 - 9:28am

Outside of the fact that I love "The Price is Right", think that Drew Carey is one of the most unfunny people on the planet, and detest almost every dictim of the so-called Libertarian party, I agree with almost everything you say in your Carey On comments.

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