The Clock Is Ticking On Your Fifteen Minutes

Kelly Clarkson has scrapped her plans for a summer tour because of poor ticket sales. Apparently she wasn't able to fill the stadiums she hoped for, so instead of scaling back her tour to smaller clubs and venues, she chose instead to fire her manager and cancel the whole the danged thing. Some of you may remember (she hopes!) Ms. Clarkson as the first winner from that odious offering American Idol, but hey, that was like five years ago, and since then we've been treated to other winners in that television contest, none of them able to quite match the success of Ms. Clarkson (except, of course, that country singer, but who didn't figure on country music fans showing a lack of good judgement in musical choices, from the same people who made Toby Keith a star). The thing is, television watchers will vote for you as long as they don't have to lift their girths of the sofa cushions. And they'll watch you on television shows, or your commercials, but expect them to leave home? Don't you know there are terrorists out there?
That's why I think you'll see changes within the polls once people actually have to, you know, vote. Any television watcher can answer the phone and say they back, say, Rudy Ghouliani or Hillary Clinton, but very few of these people will actually leave the sanctity of their HD televison sets with 300 channels, remote controls and plenty of fat-free snacks in the fridge.
But while these fleshsacs are getting the latest update on Paris Hilton's stay at the Graybar Motel, or vote in competitions that are reduced to irrelevancy on an annual basis, more people are getting their political news on the web, (while the ratings at GFox News are starting to slip), provign a boon for those candidates who really have something to say that the corporate media is trying to sweep under the rug and out of the view of most couch moistening television watchers. My guess is that by next year, even the cathode ray zombies will be sick of both party's front runners and looking for substance. Even conservative bloggers are jumping ship on Bush over his immigration plan, and more than likely, any candidate who supports this plan as well, we may find that for the front runners, like Ms. Clarkson, their fifteen minutes may be just about up, too.