This is one odd story. While we're used to hearing our late night television hosts make fun of politicians, their
jokes never seem to weigh heavily on whether a candidate actually gets elected. That may not be so in Finland, where
Conan O'Brien's endorsement of Finn President Tarja Halonen in today's election is getting a lot of attention. Why did
Conan endorse this woman? Because of her
looks. She has a remarkable resemblance to tall, pale-faced, red-haired Conan O'Brien, who airs five nights a week
in Finland. Every time he mentions his endorsement of the president, the Finn tabloids pick it up. One fake campaign ad
in Conan's show had Conan and some "Finns" fishing on a frozen lake and talking about the election. When they
mentioned the name of President Halonen's competitor, a dead fish shot out a hole in the ice and one of them said that
even a mention of the competitor's name causes fish to commit suicide. The president's competitor, of course, is
annoyed by Conan's running gag.Whether Conan's endorsement actually holds any weight at the polls today will never be known, but let's hope not, because that would be sad on so many levels.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
1-15-2006 @ 3:38AM
Jamie said...
Talk show hosts might be a different story, but i think the presidential impersonations on Saturday Night Live over the years have had an impact on elections. Chevy Chase made Ford loolk like a buffoon. Dana Carvey made the firsy Bush look clueless. phil Hartman and Darral Hammonds' portaryal of Clinton as a loveable frat boy might have helped the country stay positive about him.
It is definitely true that campaign advisors to Bush and Gore showed the candidates clips of their SNL debate parody to draw attention to how voters were perceiving them.
Our comedians have more sway than you'd think.
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1-15-2006 @ 5:15AM
Anette said...
Most of us finns are really not that stupid to vote accordingly to some american tv host. We have our own tv personalities and celebrities whose opinions are more appealing. Furthermore, those who would vote for Conan himself and don't take politics seriously, don't tend to vote at all. So no worries, our president will be elected for the people, by the people.
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1-15-2006 @ 1:05PM
Anna said...
That's good to hear, Anette. From the sounds of the story on Yahoo!, Conan has mind control powers over the Finns.
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1-15-2006 @ 1:15PM
Duane said...
The story does demonstrate an interesting point -- I now know the name of 1 of the candidates for Finland's president, but not the other. While the race for president is certainly a special case, I think it's safe to say that many a smaller election in this country (USA that is) has been won simply because the voter only knows or recognizes one name on the ballot.
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