Will 'reality politics' be a TV turn-on?

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WASHINGTON (CNN) -- "The American Candidate," a reality television show planned for 2004 on the FX network, will give contestants the chance to run for the presidency.

Doesn't politics have enough drama without getting Hollywood involved? Mo Rocca, correspondent for Comedy Central's "The Daily Show," joins "Crossfire" hosts James Carville and Tucker Carlson to discuss "reality politics."

CARLSON: ... "The American Candidate" [is] a show that will field an actual presidential candidate. Wondering if this might not be the "in" that Al Gore has been looking for to resurrect his political career?

ROCCA: Listen, it could well be. Listen, message to you folks inside the Beltway: This show is a great idea. They're going to field more than 100 candidates over a two-year period through the most democratic medium, which is television. Viewers will be able to decide.

Now, it's not a perfect system because there is a problem. And it's called the Constitution, which mandates candidates have to be at least 35 years old. I'm afraid that the show might skew too old for the demographic -- the desirable demographic -- if everyone is 35 and older.

I mean we all know it's very difficult to find 35-year-olds with acceptable midriffs. So it might not play that well.

CARLSON: But isn't there another problem?

CARVILLE: Will there be a fitness competition element to this thing?

ROCCA: I think there should be. Health is very important. Look what's happening with Vice President [Dick] Cheney. With all due respect, if he had been put through the fitness competition, we might not be so worried.

CARVILLE: Maybe we ought to insist he come aboard in a bathing suit.

CARLSON: Wait a second, Mo. The last time a candidate for president was chosen on a television show, you had Ross Perot, which was obviously a dangerous and kind of scary thing.

Do you think it's possible we could get another Ross Perot-type character out of this?

ROCCA: I think what we'll get [is] a much better-looking Ross Perot, which I think -- I'm not saying that Ross Perot is not a good-looking man. I mean, you know ...

CARVILLE: If you like that ear thing.

ROCCA: I'm sorry, what's that? Right. Right.

CARVILLE: He's got an ear thing, doesn't he?

ROCCA: No, it's a nice character trait. No, Calvin Coolidge had big ears, I think.

CARVILLE: But don't you think the country is looking for, as opposed to a better-looking Ross Perot, a more saner Ross Perot?

ROCCA: Well, no. I think it's great. A mental health competition would be great.

CARLSON: ... Tell us really quick. Sen. Fred Thompson of Tennessee is moving back to Hollywood. He is going to be on "Law & Order." Do you think he'll be influential there or in the Senate?

ROCCA: Look, I loved Fred Thompson in "In the Line of Fire." I loved him in the Senate Finance Committee, and I'm going to love him in "Law & Order."

I think if you're going to have a sitting Tennessee senator on "Law & Order," you're going to want Fred Thompson. Because Bill Frist [a GOP senator from Tennessee] is a good man, a great surgeon, but he just does not have the acting chops.

Yeah. He should be a doctor. He should not play one on TV.

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