"Not a Chance" Says the Coward

The most disappointing comment from political entertainer Glen Beck following the so-called "Restore Honor" rally in Washington DC on Saturday, was that there is "zero chance" he'd run for President. "I don't think that I would be electable," he told Fox News when asked if his popularity made him a likely candidate for a 2012 ticket with Sarah Palin.  Too bad.

And not just for fans of Saturday Night Live.  Too bad for this Country that Mr. Beck is self-aware enough to not test his political agenda out in a real election.  After all, an intensive two-year Presidential race provides an unparalleled venue and level of scrutiny that would most certainly expose Glen Beck for who he really is: a political coward who isn't ready for the Bush Leagues, let alone the Major Leagues.

In the protective shell of his television and radio shows or at rallies like Saturday's with several hundred thousand hand-picked supporters, Mr. Beck is effective at captivating people and convincing them that there's plenty to fear in life - especially in Washington.  But on the campaign trail, where messages are thoroughly scrutinized and facts are checked by armies of journalists and interns, substance matters.

So it's no wonder that the television host wants nothing to do with politics.  Why get in the game when you can continue living (and perpetuating) the lie?  Who wants to deal with reality when you can continue making over $30 million a year defying it?

I confess (proudly) I'm not a regular viewer of Mr. Beck's, but I'm not a regular viewer of any of the major network "news" programs.  However, the few episodes I have caught and the bit I've read about him these past few months as his star has risen is enough to know why he'd never get in the game and actually run for President.  In one such episode, he posted photos of Obama's relatives, parents, wife and kids on his chalk board, much like Russel Crowe did in American Gangster when he was trying to root out corruption in the NYPD.  During the course of his program, Mr. Beck went through each member of the greater Obama family and casually asserted various experiences and vague associations (e.g. his Parent's attendance at some "Red Church" near Seattle) as the basis for President Obama's socialist DNA.  Down the Obama Family tree he went, cutting into commercials and promising that when he returned, we would see why Obama - it almost wasn't his fault - had no choice but to be a socialist.

Absent from the Obama Family tree were any "fair and balanced" facts, debate, points of view, discussion.  It was a one-man circus stunt that was meant to play on the fears of white Americans who feel disenfranchised by an ailing economy, immigration, globalization and a more diverse racial and ethnic population.  He's so successful at it that he can summon the likes of 300,000+ supporters to spend their hard-earned money to travel to Washington DC and listen to the same nonsense they listen to every night on his TV program.

But put Mr. Beck on the podium in a conservative primary (no way he'd get to the general election) and make him answer questions from fellow candidates, journalists or YouTube voters and he'll come up empty.  How could he defend on live television his comments alleging that President Obama is a racist, other than to say that sometimes he "has a big mouth".  How could he sell to voters his political "agenda" beyond his routine branding of everyone who doesn't watch his program as traitors, terrorists and socialists?  It would likely be a quick debate and a quick exit from the political stage for Mr. Beck.

By not forcing Mr. Beck to come from a place of substance and fact, we let him off the hook while he laughs all the way to the bank.  But the real danger of Mr. Beck is not that he wins the Republican nomination for President.  He and Sarah Palin would drive so many moderate conservative and independent voters to Obama in 2012, Democrats wouldn't know what to do with themselves.  In fact, if anyone fears the likes of Mr. Beck as a Presidential candidate, spend four minutes watching him get cornered by Whoopi Goldberg on The View over some stupid seat-saving incident on an Amtrak train to DC.  When she accused him of lying and not telling the truth, he cowered like a rodent being chased by a broom.  It was pathetic seeing him out of his comfort zone and unable to retreat to Bill O'Reilley for a pat on the back.  Imagine when Katie Couric gets a hold of him. . .

The real danger of Mr. Beck is if he continues to rally anger on the American right, unchallenged.  He effectively stirs the personal anger and emotions of regular Americans with lies and distortions of reality, then he rants about immigration and illegals, makes viewers fear our "socialist" President who may or may not have been born here in the first place and tells you that unless this country turns to God (read: Christianity, not any other God) and away from Mosques at Ground Zero, we'll never regain our Honor.  He steps on the hornets nest and then draws up images of revolution.  Let's reclaim our honor and our country.  How and what does that mean?  He doesn't say.  Better to leave the specifics to the general public to figure them out for themselves - or worse, let them take matters into their own hands as some border militias have done in the Southwest to "hunt down illegals" like they're some sort of game bird.  And history shows that class and racial warfare can get much worse.

For Mr. Beck, it's better to tell the patient that he's dying and then offer no prescription or remedy for the ailment.  After all, prescriptions and remedies require advanced degrees, knowledge and experience - none of which Mr. Beck really has.  As he admits, he delivers "news" in an entertaining way.  Kind of how the circus takes animals who would normally be stuck at the zoo and displays them in an entertaining way.  Yes, he's definitely the clown at the circus.  That's how you get good ratings on Fox News.  But it's not what wins elections - a reality that Mr. Beck is all too aware of and why he'd never go toe-to-toe with any serious Presidential candidate, let alone the President himself.

"Not a chance," Mr. Beck told Fox News referring to 2012.  Wise choice perhaps.  But someone who backs down from a fight they start because they know they can't win is also what kids on the playground call a coward.