bryan stratton dot com

Last night, on Jimmy Kimmel Live, Hulk Hogan enthusiastically endorsed Barack Obama for president. The jokes practically write themselves, which is good news for Jason Linkins of the Huffington Post and snarky political bloggers everywhere.

A couple of things worth noting, though: Professional wrestling (and the wrestlers themselves) tend to skew conservative and Republican in a big way. The Rock spoke at the 2000 Republican National Convention, Ric Flair has been campaigning for Mike Huckabee, giant monster nerd Kane has endorsed Ron Paul’s presidential run, a number of former wrestlers have campaigned as Republican or Libertarian candidates for local offices, and during the recount fiasco of the 2000 election, announcer Jerry Lawler repeatedly asked “why won’t Al Gore just concede?” during live broadcasts of Monday Night Raw.

Also, the CNN broadcast of the South Carolina Democratic primary debate pulled in 5 million viewers, the largest television audience for a primary debate in history. That same night, the Hogan-hosted episode of American Gladiators pulled in twice as many viewers. Call it junk food for thought…