# 68: The Absurdly Charming Clay Aiken

[ldyjocelyn]

And Ben and Sean:

_______

Cool article about Politicon: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2015/10/12/inside-the-comiccon-for-politics/

The best Clay related part:

Politicon was not a left-wing conference. It was not a right-wing conference. It was something new that sounded inevitable once you got the elevator pitch. Politicon was "comic-con for politics," a "place where entertainment and politics meet." It was democracy without high stakes or consequences; it was a celebration of celebritization. If the star of CPAC is Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.), and the star of Netroots Nation is Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), the star of Politicon was singer, reality TV star and unsuccessful 2014 congressional candidate Clay Aiken.

[ldyjocelyn]

DevinMaverick Robins ‏@devinmaverick 2m2 minutes ago

@kenrudin talks with @clayaiken about celebrities & politics @Politicon. Listen @kenrudinjunkie Clay Aiken and Ken Rudin

[ldyjocelyn]

Jonathan Flora added 5 new photos — with Deborah Floraand Lila Rose.

11 hrs · Los Angeles, CA ·

So proud of my wife who moderated a spirited, enlightening, and entertaining Religious Freedom panel with Clay Aiken and Brad Dacus, President of Pacific Justice Institute at Politicon this weekend. It was also great hanging out with dear friends Dr. Alveda King, Bobby Schindler (brother of Terri Schiavo) and finally meet Lila Rose after their Pro-Life panel. What a huge success this event was!

[ninna721]

Saw a photo of Clay having his boutineer pinnef on at the wedding. While yuku is operating (sort of), whole pages are inaccessible, so can't find where I saw it.

[merrieeee]

This one?

[ldyjocelyn]

I actually saw that picture two days ago, but was a little leary of posting it here. It was found through a public Facebook page, sure -- but then we know that several of Clay's friends (and friends of friends) have gotten into a bit of trouble because of their FB security settings. Also, most Clay boards anymore are private -- we're one of the few that isn't.

I suppose this is a good time to bring that subject up. How do you feel about posting things like this picture of our board? Do you think we should be a private board?

I totally realize that we can't "protect" Clay from people who are looking for dirt on him (as if that picture was even dirt to begin with). At the same time, though, I do want to respect Clay's privacy (important to me as a librarian). Thoughts?

[FearofH2O]

I thought we set up a privacy spot on the board.. I am all for using that area. I wouldn't want to see FCA used as a referral area for something that might hurt his chance to land a great job. Who knows?

[ldyjocelyn]

We do actually have a private section of the board. It would be easy enough to use it more often...

[ldyjocelyn]

Recap of Politicon from reveur's sister Michael (some know of her as Berkley. Reprinted with permission.

Here Michael's Red Report from Politicon:

Politicon 2015 Recap

Call me a disillusioned political junkie. For reasons that have been headlines all of my adult life, I'll never recapture my youthful optimism, lost early in a periof of violence and war, but there are people who inspire me still.

Politicon 2015 Los Angeles had more than a few of them. The lineup of speakers was an absolute A-list of politicians, political commentators, consultants, creative and media types, activists and newsmakers, well balanced from left to right. Very, very impressive, especially for an event in its first year.

Despite the handful of photos of people in costume, this was not a cosplay event (I personally saw just three people in costume, not including the four in the Founding Fathers act.) The crowd was diverse, with equal numbers of men and woman, a broad range of age groups represented and a nice mix of the racial demographic that is the City of the Angels.

I am someone who has written about current affairs, worked on political campaigns, been active in advocacy since I was a teen, and I am a feature filmmaker who's also made a couple of nonfiction films. At Politicon, my special interests were the documentaries and the political comedy.

I was there all day, both days, so I had the chance to attend lots of different sessions. I could tell you about the tragedy that is the epidemic of campus rape, as depicted in “The Hunting Ground,” and the brave young women who have decided not to be silent. I could tell you that Andrew Napier (“Young Turks,” “Mad As Hell”) is droll and funny, Sgt. Jason Hale (“Citizen Soldiers”) is dedicated to the well-being of his brothers and sisters in arms, Jonathan Chinn (“The Thread”) observed that sometimes you have to choose whether to entertain or to advocate, and Nicole Boxer (“The Invisible War,” “How I Got Over” and yes, the senator's daughter) started out in entertainment, with big successful titles, but found her passion in advocacy, where she doubts she'll make a dime, but will make a difference.

I could describe how James Carville and Paul Begala can describe an election campaign from twenty-three years ago and have you riveted, inspired, fired up, laughing and anxious to find out who won. And I could tell you that, after watching half an hour of his stand-up, it is crystal clear why the brilliant Trevor Noah was chosen to succeed Jon Stewart on The Daily Show.

But I suppose you'd like to hear about Clay.

“The Runner-Up” Screening and Q&A

I heard him before I saw him. I'd just finished a screening and “The Runner-Up” was next in the same room, so I decided to just keep my place. As I was reading over my schedule, I heard a familiar laugh just outside the door, and then Clay walked in with Jonathan Chinn and a couple of other people. They all sat in the middle of the front row (the first three had been reserved for VIPs and press), so almost the entire audience was in the fourth row and back, with this empty moat between. (This was standard on Friday but I didn't notice it on Saturday.) On this hot Los Angeles Friday afternoon, the crowds for most events were light, with perhaps 65 to 75 people at the screening. I looked around and, in the crowd of all ages, with at least half of them being men, recognized no one.

Jonathan and Clay introduced the film with the familiar story of how Clay did not want to do it at all but was persuaded by his agent to meet with Jonathan, since the Chinns were known for their Emmy and Oscar quality work. Clay was running in a deep red, heavily gerrymandered district and he wanted nothing to distract potential voters from the seriousness of his campaign.

Clay said that there was not a single big Democratic donor in District 2. Running as a Democrat in districts like his is what necessitates calls to national donors, whose interests often have nothing to do with those of his potential constituents. What a problem for candidates who don't self-fund, but feel a call to service.

They chose Episode Three, “Belly of the Beast,” as particularly appropriate to the campaign finance reform topic Clay and others were discussing at Politicon. As Jonathan was introducing the episode, Clay reminded him (and thus the audience) that the entire series could be seen on Amazon Prime and iTunes, so I hope some of the attendees decided to check it out.

It was good to see it on the big screen, to remember the quality of the work and to hear the laughter at some of the things Clay said in the film. He's a funny man and this crowd appreciated that. There were sounds of sympathy for Clay's plight during the Moore Tea Citizens meeting, cheers when he hung up on the DCCC and lots of applause at the end.

During the Q & A, one older man, an old radical type, described the state of certain California campaigns and urged Clay to move out here and run, to much applause. Clay said that he appreciated that, but he loves North Carolina and wants to help things get better there.

Another man, mid-thirties, seated behind me, told Clay that he had been a candidate approached by Esquire to do a documentary, but he was so impressed with Clay and what he stood for that he was glad that they had gone with Clay instead. Clay had some quip about how he wasn't sure they'd made the right choice.

Two or three other people had policy-wonk questions, and said that they hoped Clay would run again. No one asked about his entertainment career.

Someone else wondered why “The Runner-Up” had not received wider circulation and Jonathan revealed that Lightbox had had talks with HBO and Netflix. Both had shown interest, but they finally said that they'd prefer to do something about a national race. With few exceptions, he explained, politics doesn't sell – unless it's fiction like “House of Cards” or “Veep.”

Clay said he had nothing to do with the selection, but he was happy that Esquire had picked it up. Jonathan pointed out that it was a brave choice for them, since “Esquire has a lot of male viewers, but when (Clay) was a singer, I imagine you had a lot of female fans.”

Jonathan imagines correctly.

Other questions evade my memory, but the Q & A was a short twenty minutes since Clay had to get to the Religious Freedom session (and so did I). Jonathan stayed behind and talked one-on-one with people who had more questions.

Religious Freedom: From Bakeries to Court Houses

On this panel, Clay almost acted as the person interviewing Brad Dacus of Pacific Justice Institute, a well-spoken, funny and charming man with whom I probably have little in common. Deborah Flora was the moderator, but she encouraged Clay to run with his questions.

I missed the first five minutes, traveling from conference room to conference room at a slower speed than Clay did, so I missed the introductions.

The format of this and other sessions was a free-flowing discussion of the topic, with the panelists sharing thoughts, experiences and opinions.

This session probably had fifty attendees, including professional and amateur photographers. I have only a dumb phone but, since it records audio, I decided to grab a few of Clay's statements so I could more precisely tell my sisters what the panel had been about. (It's been six or seven years since I've been here, so this recap never would have been written had my sister not told me that there was very little information available about what happened at Politicon. The quotes are taken from some very bad audio and are not complete, but do carry the gist of the conversation.)

Brad started out by telling Clay that he and his wife had watched him on “American Idol”, had bought his records, and had “voted for you, probably fifty times.”

Clay's response? “Maybe you should have voted fifty more!”

Brad is the kind of man who makes positions that are diametrically opposite of mine sound reasonable, so I actually enjoyed listening to him talk about his point of view. (His group defended the Oregon bakers accused of anti-LGBT discrimination.) Brad and Clay had a lively exchange, informed, passionate sometimes funny and always friendly.

They talked about reasonable accommodations to one's religious freedoms: Clay mentioned the difference between the Kim Davis case, where she refuse to issue marriage licenses to same sex couples and would not allow any of her clerks to issue them, and the Muslim flight attendant who would not serve alcohol but had made arrangements for the other flight attendants to serve those passengers.

How could one prove a case of religious discrimination?

Clay asked if could you make a case for “the sanctity of marriage if you've been divorced three or four times, or if there were other factors... (that would explain how the law) ran contrary to what you believe.”

He said that he had been raised Southern Baptist and talked about his parents (Faye and Ray) looking for a church and the pastor railing against divorced people and threatening them with fire and brimstone, so he knew firsthand that there was a wide divergence in what people believe or find acceptable.

The subject moved on to freedom of religion vs. freedom from religion. Brad's answer, seemingly dismissing the latter, got him in trouble with a man who described himself as an atheist. Brad said that some held atheism as a belief system in itself, and Clay added that in the courts, atheists are offered the same protections as religious groups, so the law does not discriminate.

What is the difference between discrimination and general restrictions? Brad described the case of a man he defended after being arrested for preaching on the street. Clay said there were instances where someone might claim discrimination when that was not the case. What if a student is forbidden from passing out religious tracts in the cafeteria? Is that discrimination? It could be that no one is allowed to do so because of the health code, etc., or that the student failed to leave the cafeteria even though it was closing and everyone had been asked to exit, or that he was allowed to pass them out elsewhere on campus but not in the cafeteria.

“I would never want to handcuff someone because he was preaching on the sidewalk or punish a student for passing out tracts at school. We have to recognize that we must listen to all sides of the story in order to get a clearer picture. A lot of people don't do that in this country. We're a Twitter society where we love 140 characters. We don't read the entire article. Maybe the headline was written specifically to make us believe that XYZ really happened.”

Whether it was with religion or with other issues in the public forum, Clay emphasized the importance of dialogue, of “not being so quick to anger” or to assume that people who differ have nothing in common.

“We're a country of hammers,” he said, and when we disagree, “every difference is a nail.”

“I think if we sat down and talked one-on-one for an hour and a half, we would still probably disagree on a good 75% of things, but we'd agree on 25%. At the end of the day, 25% is progress.”

Celebrity Influence in Politics

This session was moderated by Ted Johnson of Variety. This was an extraordinarily good, funny and interesting panel. I took no notes and made no recordings, and just concentrated on enjoying the lively exchange. There was a man at a table next to the speakers' platform working a soundboard. I thought it was being broadcast on AM 870 and the whole thing would be available! Damned shame.

I was looking for a seat when I heard someone call my name and sure enough it was Clay. He asked me if I was enjoying Politicon and I said “Very much: I'm a political junkie, so I'm not just hear to stalk you!” That got a laugh: he said he'd seen me at “The Hunting Ground” before “The Runner-Up” screening, and I said I was concentrating on sessions with political documentaries and political comedy. Clay then introduced me to John Ferriter. Nice to see he has people supporting him at these appearances.

The panel featured Patrick Millsaps, who introduced himself as the former Chief of Staff of Newt Gingrich's presidential campaign (“I hope I don't get booed!”), former lawyer and current entertainment industry professional, specializing in talent placement. (He placed “Clueless”'s Stacy Dash on Fox News and has worked with Jon Voight, Gary Sinise and others.) He said that he was stalking Clay, because when two Southerners find each other outside of the south, they have to stick together.

Next was Jordan Klepper from “The Daily Show,” just as funny in person as he is on television. He's clearly very intelligent as well. I wish I could remember specifically more of what he talked about, but he made me laugh and think.

Third was Ken Rudin, the former political editor of National Public Radio and now the host of the nationally syndicated show “Political Junkie.”

Ted introduced Clay last, mentioning Idol, Spamalot, his work with UNICEF and his congressional campaign --- fitting for Politicon, a nice blend of politics and entertainment.

Jordan talked about the blend of the two on “The Daily Show” and emphasized that even though they are a comedy show, they still try to present stories with integrity. It's a delicate balance, one that Jon Stewart took very seriously during his long tenure on the show. Politicians of every stripe were skewered on the show for their hypocrisy, shortsightedness, bigotry, timidity and so on.

Clay pointed out that lot of young people got their news from The Daily Show, and he and Jordan agreed that they hoped viewers would then go on to delve deeper into the issues of the day.

Ken, an old political hand, answered a question about recent campaigns that merged celebrity and politics, then took out a “Clay for Congress” button, to much applause. (I later Googled Ken and found out he has a collection of over 70,000 political buttons.)

Clay said that it was interesting that most of the successful campaigns by celebrities have been by Republicans. He mentioned Ronald Reagan and Sonny Bono specifically and, as an aside, he said that there was also Jesse Ventura, but Minnesota was always a different case. When he said that Democrats haven't been as successful, everyone yelled “Al Franken!” and he laughed.

He said that when Franken ran, Al had to make sure that he wasn't funny to be taken seriously After his close race and reelection, he is more able to be himself.

Clay laughingly said that he “tried to be as boring as possible” on the campaign trail, but that most people he met already knew something about him because he'd been in their living rooms.

He said that if Meryl Streep were to run for office, she'd run as Meryl Streep, not as a character she played, so voters would get a chance to get to know her as herself. But for Clay, when he was singing, he sang as Clay Aiken and, when he ran for office, he ran as Clay Aiken There was no divide between the two, so for people who liked him as a singer, he knew he'd probably lose half of them as soon as he put that “D” after his name.

Why? Clay speculated that perhaps “the stench of Hollywood” is more associated with liberal/progressives like himself, Al Franken and others, which led to a lively discussion of whether Republican celebrities have to hide their politics in Hollywood. Republicans might be seen as at a remove from Hollywood excesses.

Ken and Patrick agreed that the common advice that candidates are given to fit a particular mold is b.s. and that voters can sense when candidates are being inauthentic. Often the most memorable and the most successful campaigns are when the candidate tells his or her own specific personal story. Clay said he definitely relaxed as his campaign got under way and he simply spoke his mind.

Did political affiliation have an effect on careers?

Patrick said that he knew of several Republicans in Hollywood who downplayed their beliefs for fear of losing work.

Some people were so overwhelmingly popular that they seemed above it: George Clooney and Bono were named as people successful in their fields who were respected advocates, and Clint Eastwood, despite mixed reaction to his talking to a chair in 2012, went on to direct the enormously popular and critically acclaimed “American Sniper” last year.

Clay said that one of his potential donors, a man who is a friend, did not want to give the maximum, though he could easily afford it and agreed with the issues Clay was supporting, In fact, a few people Clay knew only gave up the the limit ($199, I think he said) because after that, their names would show up on campaign donor reporting.

In Clay's case, he also had to deal with “WTF Mountain.” For a lot of people, “whenever they heard that I was running for Congress, their first reaction was, 'Clay Aiken? What the f---?'” The celebrity factor only added to the difficulties of being gay and a Democrat in that district.

I particularly enjoyed that Clay wasn't using a bunch of talking points. He listened to the questions and though he clearly has strong opinions on some of the topics, he was able to talk off the cuff, sometimes with clear and well-considered opinions, sometimes formulating ideas as topics arose, once changing his mind in mid-answer and even admitting he didn't know. Very refreshing.

Big Money, Big Politics

Since I had no interest in watching Clay type answer into a computer for his Reddit AMA, and I preferred checking out the behind-the-scenes discussion of “The War Room” and the two hour political comedy block that would close out the night to watching Clay judge student debaters, my final session featuring him was “Big Money, Big Politics.”

This was another impressive panel. Moderated by Arthur Delaney of the Huffington Post, it featured Bill Burton, former DCCC and Obama staffer and the creator of the 2012 Obama superpac; liberal firebrand Dennis Kucinich, the former Ohio Congressman, and; Clay Aiken, who some of you might know.

Though the panel consisted of both establishment figures and outsiders, none of them was in favor of more money in politics. All agreed that the unregulated, dark money spending was toxic to democracy, and that the Supreme Court had made a horrible mistake in Citizens United, which they agreed needs to be overturned.

Bill, who once worked for the DCCC, found himself in the cross-hairs of questions by both Clay, who questioned the usefulness of the organization, and Dennis, who was dismissive of DCCC staffers commitment to local campaigns.

Clay described his experiences trying to work with DCCC during his campaign, how they remained noncommittal despite the fact that he met and exceeded every goal they gave him, moving the line when he did. Dennis nodded vigorously and then shared a story that backed up what Clay had said.

I'm short on time so I won't recap the comments Clay made in the audio I shared. Take a listen to them if you haven't already if you'd like a taste of what the commentary was like.

The panelists talked about the fact that 158 families have given more than half of all donations to political campaigns this year. Bill said that he was aware of the irony of starting a superpac for the reelection of a candidate who did not believe in them and who had run the most successful grassroots campaign in American history. His explanation was that, as long as superpacs are legal, it would be foolish to give up a tool that other campaigns are using to win.

Clay talked about the Citizens United decision and how it led to some being able to dominate the election process. Billionaires are now able to give unlimited money to buy influence and, indirectly, have a voice much louder than that of the average American. The idea that it was fair because everyone could give unlimited money was ludicrous. Clay scoffed at the idea that some could go from giving a million to giving two million or more, while people in his constituency could go from “giving me a dollar to giving me $2.”

All three men believe that we must reform the election process by enacting public financing of campaigns, follow the model of citizen commissions to redistrict as a way of ending gerrymandering, bring an end to dark money and overturn Citizens United.

After the panel was over, I went to the PolitiComedy Hour followed by stand-up by Trevor Noah and an interview by James Carville. It was completely fantastic, a great way to end the weekend. I wish Clay had been there to see it but, true to his nature, at that same time, he was helping some young people learn how to use their voices.

For any who might be wondering, I did not hear a single negative word about Clay during Politicon: no one in the audience, no one reading the program to decide what to see and coming across his name, no one in the cafe or the bathrooms, no one at any of Clay's panels who was there to see another panelist. Not one word. WTF Mountain, conquered.

Conversely, he received a lot of laughter, a lot of applause, a lot of knowing reactions and nodding heads and a lot of people leaving Clay's sessions talking about how much they enjoyed it.

I'm really glad that Clay had an opportunity to appear at the inaugural Politicon. He was in his element. These panels contained some real heavy-hitters and, to a person, they treated him with respect and as an equal among the panelists. In some cases, they turned to him for his opinion as soon as a question was asked. At the end of each session, the other panelists smiled, shook Clay's hand and exchanged warm words. The attitude was very, very positive.

The audience questions to Clay were equally respectful. He was not asked questions about his career, except for in the context of celebrity influence on politics, which was the point of the panel after all. Questioners identified themselves as political activists, former or hopeful future candidates, students, journalists, campaign veterans and much more. Clay was treated exactly the same way other panelists were treated, as a person worth hearing from, with experiences that were interesting and worth taking the time to listen to.

Politicon did not take itself overly seriously: there was fun to be had among the weighty topics. I thought they did a beautiful job in putting together an event that was both important and enjoyable.

I'm really glad Clay had a chance to be part of it. Watching him during these sessions, I got a clear sense of his future direction. It suits him well.

[merrieeee]

Privacy section. Who knew?

[ninna721]

Yes, didn't know. Personally, anymore, I don't know what can or can't be posted, so I do either really old pictures, or screen shots I have made, unless I know the person doesn't care.

Speaking of pictiùres, Ben and Sean posted a picture of themselves and Allister on their facebook pages that's really cute of all the three of them

[merrieeee]

Clay at the one minute mark.

[ldyjocelyn]

Clip from Politicon. Clay is at about the 1min. mark.

I am loving the respect Clay got over at Politicon. He is such a smart man IMO, and for so long, no one would take him seriously. Many do now, and I love it.

[merrieeee]

Just saw this on Twitter. I believe that is Aljazeera.

@AJAMThirdRail: .@clayaiken, @carriesheffield and @jessicaproud join @AliVelshi this Sunday at 6:30p E. http://t.co/VoZOIeECax

[ldyjocelyn]

Via CV:

Cool comment, that this girl appreciated his judging comments in their debate. I'll forgive her for spelling his name wrong in this instance.

Brief video of Clay, from a paparazzi...

https://youtu.be/bY1NkVGT1dk

[merrieeee]

Oh now my life is complete! A video of Clay walking!

[ldyjocelyn]

merrieeee -- LOL! But he has a good walk, right?

Recap of Politicon from BEEDAWN, reprinted with permission.

Well, I am back from LA and here is my Politicon recap. Thanks ILUVCLAY and Michael for your great recaps. Since so much has been covered I will just add a bit more:

I attended both Friday & Saturday - First of all the LA Convention Center is huge. You sometimes had to leave early from one event to get to the next. There were far more people there on Saturday than on Friday.

Friday:

Politico, California with Kamala Harris my Attorney General -This was a conversation about policy, politics and the news of the day, especially covering California. Was glad I was able to attend this event.

Mother, Mother, Mother – This was a discussion of justice reform, gun control, and social inequality with Lucy McBeth, mother of Jordon Davis and Leezley McSpadden mother of Michael Brown. This was a very emotional discussion with these two women who lost their sons, 17 and 18, way too soon.

Hunting Ground – Due to being a bit behind I was able to see half of this eye opening documentary on sexual assault on US campuses. I’m going to look online to see if I can find the first half. I see it has a 92% rating at Rotten Tomatoes.

The Runner Up - Yes, Clay's laugh was the first thing I heard as well. What a great experience to watch “Belly of the Beast” with an audience. It was Jonathan's favorite episode and his pick (with Clay's approval). The applause and laughter made it very special. Just before the screening started two different moms with kids took seats and just as the lights went down Johnathan said there might be swearing

I really enjoyed the Q&A after the screening which lasted longer than I thought because they were behind schedule. Quite a few people wanted to ask questions. One person asked why the Republiaiken signs, which Clay answered. Another asked if he would ever run as an Independent which Clay took some time to think about and I’m not sure he answered. The older gentleman, that Michael mentioned, had also made a contribution to Clay’s campaign which Clay thanked him for before he answered his question. I found it interesting that Lightbox had taken ‘The Runner-Up’ to both HBO and Netflix with them both showing interest but in the end they felt it needed to be about a National race for them to go with it. Political Documentaries are not an easy sell.

It would have been great if more people had attended this screening but as I said Friday had far less attendees than Saturday. It was great to see how well received this screening was and I hope some of them will check out the full series and recommend it to others.

Religious Freedom – Michael did an excellent job in recapping this whole event. My favorite Clay quote from this event was, “One of the problems in the country right now is not being willing to hear the other points of view.”

Saturday:

First off, I ran into ILUVCLAY minutes after entering the lobby. It was so great to spend the day with her exploring the vast West Hall. Thanks Judy for the company.

Political Documentaries, Journalism and Advocacy on Screen – This was an excellent discussion on documentaries. We got a brief bio on each of the film makers and even a couple of trailers of their work. You can tell Jonathan is passionate about his work. His most recent work is ‘The Tread’ which is about the social media manhunt that took place after the Boston marathon bombing. I’m going to check that out.

We left a bit early to get to the next event and ran into Clay in the hallway on his way to the Political Documentaries event. We got a big smile and a Hi! and he asked us if we had just come from seeing Jonathan and we said, “Yes.” Unfortunately for Clay there was only about 15 minutes left.

Celebrity Influence in Politics – This was one of my favorite panel discussions. It was a great panel and they were all very entertaining. Clay had both John Ferriter and Jamie Angelise from The Alternative there supporting him. This was the first time I noticed Michael being there and went over and said, Hi!

Clay mentioned once again about losing half of his fan base after putting a D after his name. He then told the story about the now ex fan that worked at the Atlanta airport that said that now that she found out Clay was a D she could no longer support him. It was interesting to hear that Clay had asked many of his celebrity friends for campaign support $ but many did not want their name out there supporting any party. Lena Dunham was also brought up as a popular advocate.

Big Money, Big Politics – Unfortunately Dennis Kucinich was rather late for this event so they finally had to start without him. I was not too impressed with Bill Burton. He practically had his back to Clay and Kucinich’s chair (at that point). Clay even did some chair moving arrangements. Burton should have been talking to the audience not just the moderator. The discussion started with the mention of this article in the NY Times – Just 158 families have provided nearly half of the early money for efforts to capture the White House http://www.nytimes.c...pac-donors.html There was quite a debate about the DCCC. Thanks so much Michael for getting some audio of this and your detailed recaps.

The Devil’s Advocate - This was a whole lot of fun! Favorite liberal and conservative talk show hosts switched sides and debated support of their opposing views. There were a lot of laughs here. Stephanie Miller, John Fugelsang and Michael Steele really stood out.

The lines for the Politicomedy and Trevor Noah were really long. Towards the end of the day there were not as many events going on so you had to line up way in advance to get in.

All in all, it was a great event and I so would go again. I only saw one person in a costume but did see a few people with campaign T-Shirts supporting their favorite candidates. Politicon was terrific in my eyes and I’m sure there will be another one next year. I sure hope there will be more video that shows up.

The only downside to my LA week was the heatwave! Ugh!!

[merrieeee]

Clay Aiken keeping it real!

http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2015/10/politicon-comic-con-for-politics

“Realness” is rarely polite, and Gingrich wasn’t the only one to be inspired by the mood. While interviewing American Idol singer turned Democratic congressional candidate Clay Aiken in the green room, I asked if he had spoken with Ann Coulter, the extremist conservative personality who was a few feet away, when he said, “F-ck no. And you can quote me on that.”

[merrieeee]

I thought this was funny.

@Jumpman728: Lmao ESPN felt like they needed to clarify that he's not related to the gay singer Clay Aiken http://t.co/tnYxuNwQFK

[ninna721]

[ldyjocelyn]

Clay Aiken @clayaiken

Say it, @JoeBiden! Please just say it! http://politi.co/1MvNjC4 #joerun

[merrieeee]

@AJAMThirdRail: .@ClayAiken talks to @AliVelshi about undocumented immigrants receiving in-state tuition at state universities. http://t.co/8WByp1qmgN

[merrieeee]

Clay tweet. hmm he's not on mine right now.

@clayaiken: Get to your TVs right NOW to see me on @AJAMThirdRail with@AliVelshi http://t.co/vMLJQepwf6

He's also tweeting the channels. I think he wants us to watch.

[ldyjocelyn]

I don't have cable, so I can't help. I feel like tweeting him back to ask him for his Dish Network user name and password, so I could watch. LOL.

[merrieeee]

He did very well. Got his points in against the two girls. He is just so smart! And the most important thing. His hair looked great! Hee Hee!