King of all politics?

Some analysts predict that syndicated radio host Howard Stern and his legions of listeners, most of whom are young male swing voters, will tip the presidential election in favor of Democratic nominee John Kerry.

This is not the first time the self-proclaimed "King of All Media" has used his program to play kingmaker. He has promoted successful Republican campaigns, including California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, New York Gov. George Pataki and New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani.

COUNTERPOINT by jodru

Big Stern fan here. Pataki was a huge success of Stern's, probably his biggest. He was the guest of honour at Pataki's inauguration. Christie Todd Whitman was the other. She named a rest stop in NJ after Stern in gratitude for his help with getting her elected. She was more of a long shot than Pataki.

Either way, Stern does indeed have the power to sway the swing voters. But the thing is, in an election like this, anything could be the kingmaker. When you sit down with the numbers, it could be the gun lobby, it could be the pro-life movement, it could be soccer moms. The last election came down to 600 votes in one state! The two elections before that were so evenly split that Clinton never even won a majority of the vote. So, with an election that's this close, anything could be the factor that decides it.

Too bad Kerry isn't offering policy up on the trail. He keeps swinging for the fences on the personality front, and that just ain't gonna do it, folks. You better hope and pray that he starts talking about the issues.