Wayne Allyn Root: Sports Handicapping Infomercial Pitchman and Candidate for Vice President

Everyone knows that campaign 2008 saw a major party presidential candidate make himself into an infomercial star by buying time to air a TV infomercial simultaneously on several networks.

But in addition to a presidential candidate who made himself into an infomercial pitchman, did you know that there was an infomercial pitchman who made himself into a candidate for Vice President of the United States?

The Libertarian Party nominated former congressman Bob Barr for president, and for the office of vice president, Wayne Allyn Root.

By profession, Wayne Allyn Root is a sports handicapper who runs the website WinningEdge.com. To promote his website, Mr. Root regularly appears on TV infomercials. I wrote about Wayne Allyn Root’s commercial in the post Winning Edge and the Return of the Sports Handicapping Infomercial. Root’s infomercial tries hard to disguise itself as a legitimate sports talk show and is much more sophisticated than earlier infomercials touting sports handicapping services. You can see Wayne Allyn Root in the following clip from his infomercial:

And here is a video of Wayne Allyn Root campaigning for high office:

You can see more of Wayne Allyn Root’s valiant campaign efforts at his website RootForAmerica.com. (It’s a play on words. Get it?)

I don’t know how many votes the Barr-Root ticket received, but I think that other candidate with a TV infomercial did a little bit better.