Apr 21 2009
Should Ashton Kutcher Punk Steve King?
Seriously. Douglas Burns,writing for the Carroll, Iowa Daily Times Herald, [Caution: bad html to follow] suggests a novel new platform for the “earnest” Kutcher:
Celebrity activist and new media pioneer Ashton Kutcher just beat CNN in a race for 1 million followers on the Internet social networking site Twitter.
A suggested next challenge for the Iowa native: move back to your home state – the western side, say Council Bluffs – and run for the 5th Congressional District seat.
As much as anyone in America Kutcher has brilliantly blended fame with substance to create an interactive organization that he’s trained on fighting malaria and child sex trafficking.
An obvious new platform for the earnest Kutcher would be a run for political office. And the place to do it would be in heavily conservative western Iowa where U.S. Rep. Steve King, R-Kiron, appears to have a Gordian knot on elections, anchored as he is with an eye-poppingly reliable GOP vote in many northwest counties.
Among the noted qualifications of Mr. Kutcher:
- He claims to be fiscally conservative and socially liberal.
- He dislikes Sarah Palin.
- He has “Iowa Smarts”
- He is “clearly well-read and passionate”
Burns also notes some of King’s perceived weaknesses:
- He is “extreme right-wing”
- King says “provocative” things.
- He likes Sarah Palin
While the title of the article is “Why Ashton Kutcher should run for Congress in Western Iowa”, the question “why” is not really answered. Unless the reasoning is that fabulous celebrities need things to do.
