Clay for Senate?

Oh, Clay Aiken, are you a uniter or a divider?

To judge from the vigorous response to Alli Marshall‘s recent Xpress cover story on the American Idol runner-up, he’s a bit of both. He’s loved. He’s hated. Maybe he should be a politician …

So suggests Durham’s Independent Weekly, which has gone so far as to produce a faux campaign mailer for the young North Carolina native. (Click here to see and download a PDF of the mailer.) It posits an ‘08 Senate run by Aiken, and points out that while he received a total of some 120 million American Idol votes, Elizabeth Dole garnered a measly $1.2 million in her successful Senate run.

What’s more, the paper points out, Aiken will turn 30 on Nov. 30, 2008 — clearing the age hurdle just in time to serve in the Senate.

So, Claymates (and Clay-haters), could Aiken serve as North Carolina’s man in Washington?

— Jon Elliston, managing editor

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About Jon Elliston
Former Mountain Xpress managing editor Jon Elliston is the senior editor at WNC magazine.

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17 thoughts on “Clay for Senate?

  1. Let me know if this actually happens, and I’ll start a campaign for the U.S. to detonate it’s nuclear weapons on it’s own citizens in protest.

  2. Orbit DVD

    When I was dragged to a Clay Aiken show two years ago in Kansas, I was not a fan. Wow! This man is the total package… entertainer, singer and entertainer. Count me now as a fan and I’ll definitely vote for him in 2008!

    How’d I do ladies?

    marc

  3. I was kidnapped by middle-aged she-pirates, bound, gagged and forced at gunpoint to attend a Clay Aiken concert in the center of a volcano. Man! That guy is the real deal. He can sing, use his heavenly voice, and also entertain with his talent for entertainment.

    Consider me a fan. I’m voting for Clay as King of America and NAFTA — not to mention music — right now.

  4. This guy who lived up the street from me used to come over and say awful things to me and my sister. We’d cry whenever we saw him drive by, but then one day he started playing Clay Aiken’s music. At first, we were hesitant to get inside of his ’78 Econoline van, but when we did, we listened to Clay’s music.

    You go Clay! Your music helped me block out a very trying experience and just knowing that you give so much to charity makes it okay! CLAY AIKEN MAKES ME NOT WANT TO PRESS CHARGES, PEOPLE! So HATERS, keep HATING, Clay is the REAL DEAL!

  5. Clay Aiken once battled off an entire fleet of Zentradi Interstellar Warships bent on destroying the Earth and all its inhabitants using only his uncanny talent for uncanny pop vocals. THANK YOU CLAY AIKEN! Haters need to LISTEN, and stop HATING!

  6. Ken Hanke

    I have now begun envisioning Messrs. Bugg and Shanafelt sharing a cheese-log with Clay Aiken. This image affords me no comfort.

  7. What kind of cheese log? Are we talking Hickory Farms, or Stuckey’s? It makes a big difference, vision-wise.

    Oh, and YOU HATERS better QUIT ALL THE HATIN’, cause CLAY is AWESOME! Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go and change my MySpace theme to a patchwork of hue-altered CLAY faces. CLAYMATES got to REPRESENT!

  8. Ken Hanke

    Mr. Bugg suggests a far too thorough knowledge of Clay Aiken.

    As for the type of cheese log…somehow Stuckey’s seems more appropriate.

  9. tralalogic

    Please please please give me a democrat to vote for. Senator Dole doesn’t represent me. Clay, Heath, who cares, anybody!

  10. “shhhh… You know they’re listening.”

    You know CLAY hears all. He’s like Superman, only if Superman was THE REAL DEAL!

    One time, CLAY defeated Brainiac and Lex Luthor, just by singing an AWESOME cover of Gloria Gaynor’s “I Will Survive,” turning both of the villains from HATERS into instant CLAYMATES!

    THANK YOU FOREVER CLAY AIKEN!!!

  11. Ken Hanke

    Get back to me when he covers “Who Put the Benzedrine in Mrs. Murphy’s Ovaltine?”.

  12. Orbit DVD

    I’ve changed my mind about Clay Aiken. I just got word that he is anti-feet.

    marc

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