That's the verdict of Mike Allen, writing on his lefty news site Axios in its morning brief today. If even a left-leaning swamp lizard like Allen can spot it, it's probably what's going on. Allen writes:

Addressing an Iowa political group with his trademark satire on President Trump, actor and comedian Alec Baldwin is running for something.

Alec Baldwin sounds like a candidate as he speaks to 3,000 in Des Moines last night at the Iowa Democratic Party Fall Gala, formerly the Jefferson-Jackson Dinner (named for Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson, who owned slaves and therefore were dropped from banquet names around the country): "Jefferson Jackson was a great man."

Says he'll donate his brain to science "if we still have science."

Exit line: "Let's make America America again."

Here is some of the video from the Des Moines Register:

The Register thought Baldwin's calls to action in his speech made him sound like a candidate for something, too.

But much more of Baldwin's speech sounded like a conventional political address. He noted that his father was a school teacher on Long Island, in New York, and ran through his own history of political activism, from supporting John F. Kennedy to Hillary Clinton. And, above all, he extolled Democrats to get active. "We've got crucial work to do right now for 2018," Baldwin said. "We've got party building to do on a scale that perhaps we've never known."

With Baldwin out stumping, maybe Democrats, who are miserably bereft of leaders, should be careful what they wish for.

Actors and comics have a generally good history on the Republican side and an abysmal one among the Democrats.

Ronald Reagan was a great president. Sonny Bono was a good congressman from Palm Springs. Fred Grandy, known as "Gopher" on Love Boat, was a fine congressman – and from Iowa, no less. Clint Eastwood was a good mayor of Carmel. Fred Thompson was a respected senator from Tennessee. There was also Schwarzenegger – whose orientation rapidly turned Democrat, and he eventually dropped from the Republican Party.

Whom do the Democrats have? Al Franken, the pervert and sex-harasser from Minnesota. That, and Jerry Springer of Cincinnati, is pretty much all they get when they elect an actor and comic.

Alec Baldwin is well known for his disgusting diatribe against his daughter, caught on an answering machine several years back calling her a "pig" (and whining about the blowback). Just last month, he was caught acting like an enraged drunk in the streets.

If the Democrats are dumb enough to encourage this guy, they'll get exactly what they deserve.