Post by Techguy on May 12, 2007 3:57:31 GMT -5
Hollywood Today
Waterston Seeks Law & Order in Presidential Race
Wednesday, March 21st, 2007
By Lagan Sebert
HOLLYWOOD, CA (Hollywood Today) 3/21/07 — “Law and Order” star Sam Waterston who has spent his professional career in political conflicts, is taking aim at real-life presidential politics. In an interview with George Stephanopoulos on ABC’s “This Week,” Waterston said he has joined Unity08, which aims to draft a bipartisan presidential ticket next year.
It is only fitting that this new centrist movement don it’s own celebrity backer, and none better than the stoic Waterston who is often a politician or a victim of politics, as with his Oscar-nominated role in “The Killing Fields.”
Waterston has carved out his own place in American popular culture through his thirteen-year tenure as the hard-nosed prosecutor on the acclaimed show “Law and Order.” He stated “There’s a huge majority of the American people who are ready for this, who are not represented in the current system. And this is an opportunity for those people to speak up.”
While some argue that our current two party system already lends itself toward the median voter and that a centrist party is that last thing that we need, Unity08 says that both parties alienate voters and are unduly influenced by single-issue groups. The movement’s web site states that strict partisan issues such as gun control, abortion and gay marriage dominate a disproportionate amount of the national agenda. Unity08 says that it would like to popularly nominate a bipartisan candidate that will help to focus a national election on what it considers to be the crucial issues.
“I think by its existence it will have a beneficial effect on anybody who’s running for president, because they will be obliged to look over their other shoulder at the center, and not simply address the partisan factions that have so much sway in primaries,” Waterston said.
Recent U.S. presidential elections have been surrounded by so much glitz, money and showmanship that the election culture becomes that of a sporting event rather than a political debate. Democratic and Republican conventions are so saturated with lobby money and celebrity photo ops that it’s hard to keep track of what the real differences between the candidates on the actual issues.
Unity08 states blatantly on their web site that their main goal is not to win the 2008 election. The web site states that the goal is to “effect major change and reform in the 2008 national elections by influencing the major parties to adopt the core features of our national agenda.”
Unity08’s national agenda surrounds its interpretation of the crucial issues which include: “global terrorism, our national debt, our dependence on foreign oil, the emergence of India and China as strategic competitors and/or allies, nuclear proliferation, global climate change, the corruption of Washington’s lobbying system, the education of our young, the health care of all, and the disappearance of the American Dream for so many of our people.”
Other Unity08 supporters include Doug Bailey, a former GOP consultant; Carter administration stalwarts Hamilton Jordan and Gerald Rafshoon; and former U.S. Ambassador Tom Strook, a former Wyoming state senator who was leader of the GOP in that state.
This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 21st, 2007 at 4:31 pm.
Waterston Seeks Law & Order in Presidential Race
Wednesday, March 21st, 2007
By Lagan Sebert
HOLLYWOOD, CA (Hollywood Today) 3/21/07 — “Law and Order” star Sam Waterston who has spent his professional career in political conflicts, is taking aim at real-life presidential politics. In an interview with George Stephanopoulos on ABC’s “This Week,” Waterston said he has joined Unity08, which aims to draft a bipartisan presidential ticket next year.
It is only fitting that this new centrist movement don it’s own celebrity backer, and none better than the stoic Waterston who is often a politician or a victim of politics, as with his Oscar-nominated role in “The Killing Fields.”
Waterston has carved out his own place in American popular culture through his thirteen-year tenure as the hard-nosed prosecutor on the acclaimed show “Law and Order.” He stated “There’s a huge majority of the American people who are ready for this, who are not represented in the current system. And this is an opportunity for those people to speak up.”
While some argue that our current two party system already lends itself toward the median voter and that a centrist party is that last thing that we need, Unity08 says that both parties alienate voters and are unduly influenced by single-issue groups. The movement’s web site states that strict partisan issues such as gun control, abortion and gay marriage dominate a disproportionate amount of the national agenda. Unity08 says that it would like to popularly nominate a bipartisan candidate that will help to focus a national election on what it considers to be the crucial issues.
“I think by its existence it will have a beneficial effect on anybody who’s running for president, because they will be obliged to look over their other shoulder at the center, and not simply address the partisan factions that have so much sway in primaries,” Waterston said.
Recent U.S. presidential elections have been surrounded by so much glitz, money and showmanship that the election culture becomes that of a sporting event rather than a political debate. Democratic and Republican conventions are so saturated with lobby money and celebrity photo ops that it’s hard to keep track of what the real differences between the candidates on the actual issues.
Unity08 states blatantly on their web site that their main goal is not to win the 2008 election. The web site states that the goal is to “effect major change and reform in the 2008 national elections by influencing the major parties to adopt the core features of our national agenda.”
Unity08’s national agenda surrounds its interpretation of the crucial issues which include: “global terrorism, our national debt, our dependence on foreign oil, the emergence of India and China as strategic competitors and/or allies, nuclear proliferation, global climate change, the corruption of Washington’s lobbying system, the education of our young, the health care of all, and the disappearance of the American Dream for so many of our people.”
Other Unity08 supporters include Doug Bailey, a former GOP consultant; Carter administration stalwarts Hamilton Jordan and Gerald Rafshoon; and former U.S. Ambassador Tom Strook, a former Wyoming state senator who was leader of the GOP in that state.
This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 21st, 2007 at 4:31 pm.
Patrick Roy, 2006 inductee into the Hockey Hall of Fame