Finland, a true democratic election

Lost in the mix of the elections in Iraq and the Palestinian Territory was another awkard election-- Finland. Finland is a small country of approximately 5 million people located in Europe up there with Norway and Sweden. Recently they re-elected their president, Tarja Halonen. This in itself is a rather dull and uninteresting story in the United States, until you hear who helped her win--Conan O'Brien!

Many people aren't able to stay up late at night to watch Conan O'Brien, who comes on after Jay Leno on NBC. He is truly the funniest of the late night talk show hosts and will be taking over the Tonight Show when Leno retires. But for now he is relegated to the 12:35 time slot.

So, apparently Conan O'Brien is shown in Finland where he has become quite popular. He began receiving mail from Finland, and, in his typical fashion, began making hillarious jokes about it on his show. Then, in an ironic twist, he realized he beared a strong resemblence to the President, Tarja Halonen (see picture). He embraced this, making fake campaign commercials such as comparing her opponent to Stalin and Skeletor (that's right, from He-Man). This has been hysterical, and with his help, she won re-election.

Now Conan is set to travel next week to Finland to meet with the President and receive an award on Feb. 14 at the Telvis Awards in Helsinki for being "the most surprising and entertaining TV personality in Finland." If you get a chance you should tune in, because it is sure to be a funny experience with O'Brien.

I think it is hard sometimes for Americans to comprehend the amount of cultural influence we have over the world; this is just another example. (Also, note the fact that at the opening ceremonies in Torino all they played while athletes came in the stadium was American 80s music.)