'Democrats Should Run a Celebrity for President, Too' - Frances Hubbard

The outpouring of celebrity support for Democratic candidates isn't a new phenomenon, in fact it helped former presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama win their election. But the power of celebrity seemingly hurt Hillary Clinton in her presidential bid, and helped Republican Donald Trump. New Republic article "Democrats Should Run a Celebrity for President, Too" explores this incident, and comes to conclusion that perhaps a celebrity would be the key to having a Democrat president.
This article was very interesting and it really made me think about the reasons why Hillary Clinton and Al Gore lost. Author Jeet Heer discusses the fact that celebrity has culminated in two victories for Conservatives and only seems to work for the Democrats when paired with a charismatic nominee -- think Obama or Bill Clinton. Heer brings up the point that "over the past half centure, the Democrats have won the presidency when they nominated candidates who were more magnetic than their rivals, as Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, and Barack Obama were. Conversely, Democrats have always lost when they were outmatched by star power (as when Reagan ran against Carter)." This is an extremely important point, and I see how it may be the key to defeating Donald Trump in 2020.
I agree with the piece that something needs to change in the Democratic party, but I'm hesitant to nominate a celebrity for some of the same reasons I'm hesitant about Donald Trump. Sure a famous Democrat will be more stable and rational than President-elect Trump, but they'd still be vastly unprepared and unqualified. In addition nominating a wealthy "elitist" has the chance to alienate many blue-collar voters who see the rich as the enemy -- ironically this group primarily voted for Trump but that's not the point. Heer seems to recognize this point and counters by saying "...Democrats' main problem ... wasn't in appealing to anti-elitist voters; it was in getting out the party's base. A magnetic, attractive movie star would have a far better chance of accomplishing that than just another accomplished, dowdy politician." Now, this is a really good point but I'm still skeptical about trusting a celebrity with the highest office in the land. Maybe for Vice President. I'll start making T-Shirts for Joe Biden & Meryl Streep 2020.