Ticomaya wrote: Michael Moore gets praise and support, and is quoted often by Democrat supporters. And you might also remember he sat in former President Carter's box at the DNC convention in 2004. Does Michael Moore represent Democrats? What about Cindy Sheehan?
I would say that Michael Moore's positions speak for a fairly large percentage of the Democratic Party. Some may find flaws with some of the things about Fahrenheit 911, but most Democrats agree with many of his positions.
Cindy Sheehan seems to be a strict anti-Iraq person more than a Democrat. She has expressed real problems with the Democratic Party, so I would not say she speaks for the Democrats, no. Although many like some things she does. Incidentally, how many Democratic leaders have visited her?
Ticomaya wrote:Does Sean Hannity represent Republicans? Liimbaugh? What about Bill Kristol? William F. Buckley? Rich Lowry?
I don't there are too many Republicans who don't agree with most of the positions of the National Review, so to a large extent Buckley and Lowry could be said to speak for Republicans in an informal sense.
Republican leaders and representatives just love to appear on Hannity's show, where they are treated with kid gloves, so I would put him on the list as well.
As for Limbaugh, back in the nineties, Mary Matalin-certainly a Republican insider-said on her TV show that after Clinton's victory in 1992, and a Democratic House and Senate, that Rush Limbaugh was about the only thing the Republican Party had going for it in those early years. On Election Day 1994, Rush kept on saying "we are taking the House, we are taking the Senate" over and over and over again on his show. I didn't hear anyone from the Republican side take pains to disagree with him after the election. That speaks volumes.
Just as both parties have official party spokesmen and elected officials who serve as official or quasi-official spokesmen, (theoretically a Senator speaks only for himself and his state, but his words will reflect strongly on his party), so too are there commentators who serve as informal spokesmen for the party, since so many people in that party refer to them and agree with them.