Bruce Springsteen Forum

As stars come out, N.H. tries to stay grounded
By Jim Spencer
Denver Post Columnist


PORTSMOUTH, N.H. - As she collected Ted Danson's autograph at a "Wesley Clark for President" rally in this seaport-turned-tourist trap Saturday, I asked Judy Gordon if she'd ever heard of Max Weinberg.

"The name sounds familiar," she said.

The 52-year-old Connecticut woman, who had traveled to New Hampshire to get a look at Clark, her favorite for the Democratic nomination for president, thought for a moment but drew a blank on Weinberg, the drummer of Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band who's supporting John Kerry.

Kerry may win the nation's first presidential primary. He has already lost the celebrity sweepstakes.

With the election still a day away, the results on stargazing are in. Kerry finished fourth, behind Howard Dean, Clark and John Edwards.

The best Kerry was able to do by way of entertainment icons was a benefit concert by '70s singer Carole King and an RV tour featuring Weinberg, Kelly Scott and Scott Wolf.

Kelly Scott?

A Kerry news release gamely provided this hint:

"Remember 'Party of Five?"'

I don't. But I have heard of MTV's show "The Real World," where the Kerry campaign assures me Kelly works.

The campaign further invited me to "Hop on the RV and catch up with Scott Wolf, who played Bailey."

That's nice. But I never lost track of Scott Wolf, and the only Bailey I'd like to catch up with is Nancy Bailey, whom I escorted in the homecoming court in high school.

If, amid my bewilderment, Kerry wins, perhaps it will prove that the political power of pop culture has passed the point of diminished returns.

In New Hampshire it certainly passed beyond the absurd.

Rachel Eichenbaum is a registered nurse in Portsmouth. She doesn't know who Max Weinberg is. What she knows is that federal budget cuts have forced her to close the free mammogram and Pap smear program she once offered to uninsured and underinsured women.

"I don't care about stars," Eichenbaum said. "I care about policies."

"I'm not star-struck," Carol Melchor added as she sat in the audience at the Clark rally. "Some people are. If stars can raise money for candidates, that's OK. Sometimes a star's endorsement can have the opposite effect."

Sometimes it can have no effect.

Dean is expected to lose Tuesday, falling from first to second or possibly even third place. Yet Dean probably won the celebrity war in New Hampshire. He wheeled out some serious star power when director Rob Reiner visited the state last week to stand by him for a day.

On Sunday, Dean let go with both pop gun barrels when Martin Sheen arrived.

I wish someone would produce a bumper sticker that reads "Martin Sheen for Howard Dean." This would at last give the actor the imprimatur Dean's people think Sheen deserves.

Dean's press office proudly made Sheen available for a conference call with reporters Sunday afternoon. After all, Sheen may not be president, but he plays one on TV.

Sheen said he met Dean, a former governor of Vermont, more than a year ago in California. Dean was testing the idea of a presidential candidacy. Sheen said he told Dean he was supporting Gore. But when Gore dropped out, Dean became Sheen's man.

"The most important thing," Sheen said, "was (opposition to) the war in Iraq. Gov. Dean stood out more than any Democrat. I'm hoping that's going to be the center of the national debate."

While Sheen's support is based purely on ideology, actress Mary Steenburgen, a star in the movie "Elf" and the TV series "Joan of Arcadia," knows Clark. Their mothers worked together at a bank in Little Rock, Ark.

Danson, well-known for his lead roles in the TV shows "Cheers" and "Becker," is married to Steenburgen. An avid environmentalist, Danson said he was endorsing Clark because the retired four-star general could negotiate better than the other candidates with polluters.

Some celebrities don't even bother to speak. They just stand.

"Our friend Glenn Close is with us," Edwards said, pointing out the award-winning actress in the crowd at a Sunday rally in Nashua.

She wasn't with them long, at least not publicly. Five minutes into Edwards' speech at the Fairgrounds Junior High gym, Close was nowhere to be seen. Unlike Steenburgen and Danson, she did not hang around to chat with supporters, sign autographs and have pictures taken after the program.

Whether this will cause Edwards to finish behind Clark, no one knows. But if Edwards' surging campaign manages to overtake Clark's, we can at least say that Hollywood didn't turn the tide. We can also say that for a self-professed family-values candidate, Clark's list of celebrity endorsers may be the most bizarre of any. It includes Madonna.

But she didn't come to New Hampshire. In fact, it's all over and done for the paparazzi in the Granite State.

On the other hand, I just got a news release telling me that pop music stalwarts Blues Traveler will be entertaining the Clark faithful on election night in Columbia, S.C., the site of the next primary.

What a relief.

Jim Spencer's column regularly appears Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays in The Denver Post.