Mark Preston at CNN's Political Ticker reports there's a major Hollywood contingent judging a Health Reform Video Challenge contest for the Democratic Party's Organizing for American campaign. (See today's Open Thread for one flag-mangling contestant.)
Stars on the judging panel for the final 20 TV ads include John Cho ("Flash Forward"), Rosario Dawson ("Men in Black"), Dule Hill ("The West Wing"), Brandon Routh (who played Superman), Kate Walsh ("Private Practice"), Olivia Wilde ("House") and musician Will I. Am of the Black Eyed Peas.
But the most risky name is Seth MacFarlane, the abrasive atheist creator of the Fox cartoons "Family Guy," "American Dad," and "The Cleveland Show."
The harshest ad in the contest features grade-school kids talking about how they'll suffer (and even die) because health care is denied:
BOY: A year from now, I’ll break my leg and my parents will have to sell our house because we couldn’t afford health care
GIRL: Three months from now, I’ll need surgery, and my parents will go bankrupt because they couldn’t afford health care.
GIRL #2: Two years from now, I’ll be diagnosed with leukemia, and I’ll die. Because we couldn’t afford health care.
On her national radio show Wednesday, Laura Ingraham decried this ad as exploitative, and NBC reporter Chuck Todd agreed that using kids was wrong: "I hate it."
