The entry below is being cross posted from Marjorie Arons-Barron’s own blog.

Ronald Reagan. Arnold Schwarzenegger. Clint Eastwood. Sonny Bono, Al Franken.  All actor/ entertainers who won roles as politicians in real life. Now here comes Alec Baldwin.  His MSNBC show , Up Late, which debuts tonight, may be the next step in his flirtation with politics.  At least, that’s what Variety seems to think.  Baldwin may prove too toxic for the grown-up political arena, or, on second thought, he may fit right in.

While some prefer to think of the humorous middle-aged regular guy who played Meryl Streep’s ex in It’s Complicated  or the network executive in 30 Rock, Baldwin’s real life persona is more that of a guy who shoots his mouth off, disses people in nasty tweets, goes on anti-gay tirades, or leaves a voice mail message for his daughter, calling her a “rude, thoughtless pig.”  She was all  of 11 years old at the time.

For someone whose interests and causes are decidedly liberal, I wonder about the potential impact of his Faustian bargain with Capital One on his budding political career.  In becoming the ubiquitous face of Capital One commercials,  Baldwin has sold a chunk of his reputation for a big bucks gig, endorsing a  banking scoundrel. As reported in the Wall Street Journal,  the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau named Capital One, the fifth largest player in the credit card industry, as Number One in consumer complaints.  So much for standing up for the little guy.

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