Michael Moore wants more actors to run for office

No, we never really talk about politics really on JoBlo, and I’m not planning on starting any great debates now. But I did catch a bit of an interview with filmmaker Michael Moore speculating on how Democrats can get their mojo back after losing it big in the recent midterm.

His solution? Have more politically conscious actors run for office. Republicans do it, so why don’t Dems?

Here’s the quote from MSNBC:

O’Donnell: Presidential elections have a movie star candidate to vote for. Midterm elections are like trying to open a movie on the weekend without a movie star. How do you do that? You’ve done that.

Moore: … [the Republicans] have actually run movie stars and won. They ran Ronald Reagan. Fred Thompson was a senator. Gopher from The Love Boat. Sonny Bono…

O’Donnell: Arnold Schwarzenegger

Moore: I don’t know why they hate Hollywood so much. When they run Hollywood, they win. When are the Democrats going to run Hollywood. For as much as they’re accused of going hollywood…

O’Donnell: Tom Hanks, step right up here for your nomination.

Moore: Seriously, if we ran Tom Hanks, if we ran Oprah, there’s a whole column of people who are beloved people, who are smart, good. But we have Obama, and he’s kind of like Tom Hanks, a nice guy. Why dont they make use of all the great communicators in Hollywood to help fashion a message?

Is this a good idea? Could “liberal” Hollywood actually change America by getting more involved than just talking about it? We have many actors who are “goodwill ambassadors” to this place or that, and they do a lot of good, but could they do even MORE as Congressman Hanks or Senator Jolie?

Is the ability to get people to listen more valuable than say, actual legislative experience? And finally, if they did run, would they win? It’s something interesting to think about to be sure.