The Stupid Is Strong These Days

I've been busy and will be busy for the next few days at least with grading, midterm meetings, parent's day, Halloween, the Day of the Dead, alphabetizing my sock drawer by thickness... you name it.

And I haven't been closely following all the various stories that have dominated the internets these past few days.  Like the Herman Cain Smoking Man ad.  Or Pat Robertson calling the current GOP "too conservative".  Or the apparent end of the Iraq War.

Or the obvious discontent with the GOP field.  This story is gaining momentum like Newt Gingrich falling down a greased Slip-and-slide.

Nobody REALLY likes Romney, and given his apparent lack of convictions and willingness to say absolutely anything given the context of the moment, I'm not sure he even likes himself.

Herman Cain leads the polls, despite the fact that a small majority of Republicans think his 9-9-9 plan is nuts or terrible or something.  Credit where credit is due, the 9-9-9 plan is nuts and terrible, so kudos to the GOP for figuring THAT out.

Some people are suggesting Newt might be the next flavor of the month, pulling a repeat of McCain's 2008 late charge.  Whatever.  Please, go ahead and nominate Newt.  The debates will at least be entertaining to watch.

Bachmann's campaign staff in New Hampshire quit, which is good news for the Hermanator, because he HAS NO CAMPAIGN STAFF there.

I guess a late Santorum surge is plausible.  But not plausible enough for me to make any jokes about froth.

Which leads me to this. Chait basically argues - persuasively - that Rick Perry is really, really worried that he's not conservative enough for the GOP field.  In this telling, it is not Perry's somnolent debate performances that sent his campaign into a tailspin (Dubya couldn't debate a three year old), but his statement that people who would punish the children of illegal aliens are "heartless".  Guess, what Rick, you just called 96% of Republicans heartless.  And that includes the devout Christians.

So, Perry released his stupid-ass tax plan that would be a Chernobyl-Fukuyama times a billion disaster.  He showed he was - if not Birther-curious - at least Birther Mirthful.

And then there is talk that Perry is lining up a real rogue's gallery of character assassins to run his media campaign.  I love this quote from Alex Castellanos: “Perry won’t just go negative. He’ll make your television bleed and beg for mercy.”

Basically one of the most conservative politicians in the country has to go full John Birch to re-establish his street cred.

Congress is at 9% approval.  OWS is probably more popular than any single politician in the country.  The Pope just basically endorsed them.

And we are about to watch a personal feud between an idiot and an amoral shapeshifter who both have great hair become a to-the-death cage match.

I better get back to grading these papers so I can watch this particular bonfire of the vanities.