Please Stop Taking Stephen A. Smith For President Seriously

Of all the recent headlines chronicling the American political system going up in flames under a cloud of corruption and idiocy, few have depressed me more than this recent one from The Guardian: “Democrats are reeling. Is Stephen A Smith the way back to the White House?”

As depressingly stupid a question as that might sound to many of us, reporter David Smith explains that there is a genuine growing chorus of people asking themselves if Sports Steve Harvey is a legitimate contender in the 2028 Democratic presidential primary.

The talk for Smith started in late January, when, to the surprise of many,  a McLaughlin poll showed among various Democratic primary candidates for president in 2028, he received two percent.

For comparison, Tim Walz, the former vice presidential candidate, netted three percent.

Much as I would like to dismiss two percent of the population, though, as The Athletic’s Dan Shanoff noted in his reporting on the Smith for president chatter, in a summer 2015 poll from the Texas Politics Project, Donald Trump had two percent in the poll for the Republican presidential nomination in the state.

Perhaps that’s partially why the sports commentator is suddenly eager to publicly talk about the possibilities.

On a February episode of “The Stephen A. Smith Show,” Smith claimed: “The Democratic Party looks so pathetic after this election; I might entertain running. I just might change my mind one day. I doubt it, but I might. Because how much would it take to beat y’all? And Trump can’t run again.”

And when asked by The View co-host Alyssa Farah Griffin about what he makes of the hypothetical polls, Smith answered: “I make of it that citizens, particularly on the left, are desperate. And I mean it when I say it: I think I can beat them all.”

Separately, speaking with CNBC Sport’s Alex Sherman last month, when asked if any part of him wants to run for office, Smith said, “I wouldn’t mind being in office, but running for it is a problem.”

“You tell me I can catapult to the White House, and I could be in a position to affect millions upon millions of lives, not just in America, but the world over, yeah, that’s something that I would entertain,” he added.

So, Stephen A. Smith says that he’d love to be president, but he would rather not do all of the campaign work it traditionally requires to get elected.

As lazy as that sounds, a lazy candidate – if famous – can do a lot with free media in this fractured climate – especially when you’re adept at going viral by saying whatever comes to mind.

And since it worked for the other crazy uncle from TV and his White House ambitions, now that Stephen A. Smith has signed a new contract with ESPN reportedly worth at least $100 million for five years that will allow him more free time to talk politics, media speculation has only intensified.

Just last week, The View aired a segment asking whether political outsiders such as Smith or Mark Cuban should run for president.

Kind of like they did for you-know-who.

More publications in desperate need of clicks and streams will probably only further stoke this Smith for prez talk, but can we get this bulls**t out already?

And by we, I mean the white contingent in media as they are the only demo taking Stephen A. Smith for Prez seriously.

Is there a possibility that Stephen A. Smith could win?

Anything is possible, but have y’all noticed nobody Black besides Stephen A. Smith is pretending that this is a thing?

Stephen A. Smith has a podcast where he interviews politicians and frequently appears on cable news and elsewhere to give his political opinions, but many of these opinions will not be popular among the kind of Democratic voters who determine presidential nominees.

Some might have enjoyed Smith musing that he felt like “a damn fool” for voting for Kamala Harris after the fact during an appearance on Real Time with Bill Maher, but the majority of base voters will not.

You know who Stephen A. Smith does like?

Candace Owens.

Smith did a recent interview with the conservative commentator that I try to forget it exists as much as humanly possible, and after it, lavished praise on her.

“When that young lady speaks, don’t even think about challenging her intelligence,” Smith said. “Don’t even think about challenging her ability to articulate her point of view. You better know what the hell you’re talking about when you come at her… Candace Owens, she’s not going anywhere.”

I’m not at all surprised given how chummy he is with Fox’s Sean Hannity.

Or the fact that when you listen to Stephen A. Smith opine about politics, you get an ideology that can mostly be reduced to that conservative Black uncle at the barbershop who likes to argue.

The only reason Stephen A. Smith would run as a Democrat is that the GOP primary voters are too racist to vote for his kind to go that far in their party.

The Democrats, in theory, would be a more favorable vehicle for Smith’s apparent presidential ambitions.

Admittedly, after watching Stephen S. Smith explain his recent run-in with LeBron James at a Lakers game, I wondered if Smith would go up in the polls.

This country is that goofy and unserious.

Still, if Democratic primary voters paid Stephen A. Smith the kind of attention the presidential bid yields, the less likely he is to troll his way to the White House.

That’s what a lot of these silly, out-of-touch white pundits wasting everyone’s time trying to draft someone from ESPN to run for president fail to understand. American political media has long suffered from its sportsifying coverage, but this is going too far.

There are so many serious Black politicians for president worth considering – go hype one of them.

Michael Arceneaux is a New York Times bestselling author whose most recent book, “I Finally Bought Some Jordans,” was published last March.

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