Is McDonald’s putting Psychosis-inducing drugs in its french fries?
(This thread may belong in IMHO – I state my opinion and ask for others’ – but I’m choosing BBQ Pit to allow Dopers free rein at venting any ire.)
First of all, i am no Pavlov’s Liberal Dog who salivates and barks on hearing the word “Republican.” Ford and Bush-41 were fine Presidents, and Eisenhower one of the most outstanding Presidents of my lifetime. Dole seemed to be a sensible sincere man; McCain was a likable guy with whom I found myself in agreement on many important issues (though by 2008 he was past his “use by” date). I even admire Nixon who could have been one of the best Presidents of our era. (Some other Presidents were also corrupt but did a better job of concealing their sins.) I am no fan of Reagan, but at least he was not an utter clown or crackpot.
Yet, look at the Republican field for the coming election! Perry, Gingrich, Cain, Bachmann, Paul, Palin and Trump can only be described as utter jokes. If one looks for crackpot candidates from the 20th century, names that spring to mind are Goldwater, McGovern, and Perot, yet I wouldn’t hesitate a second in preferring any of these three over any of the seven clowns I named above.
The clowns are quite different from each other, of course. Paul seems like an intelligent likable guy who brings to mind the quote “a mind is a terrible thing to waste.” I’m curious about Perry: he reminds me so much of GWB, the fratboy prankster who owes his success to Daddy’s intimacy with the Saudi royals, but what’s Perry’s claim to fame? (His resume makes the comparison with GWB apt: “Perry was a prankster in college,” then “a door-to-door book salesman” and fell into bed with Karl Rove.) The other jokesters on the list are so obviously unsuitable for the Presidency that even Republicans know it, secretly, unless they’re utter morons. Gingrich may deserve special mention: he may have the highest IQ of the lot but is almost certainly the most evil and corrupt.
I’ve left Romney off the list of clowns. He’s the one serious contender who, if elected, could proudly take his place among Harding, Buchanan, and GWB as one of the worst U.S. Presidents ever, but at least one can contemplate his election without laughing or vomiting. I will admit that my estimate of Romney’s intellect dropped when, invited to say something bad about Gingrich, he stammered for a while and then came up with … a Lunar expedition fantasy. :smack:
(Some of the also-rans in the race seem less silly than the front-runners. Have we reached the point where, since news is entertainment and “any publicity is good publicity,” our system is geared to elect clowns?)
How about it, fellow Dopers? Is this year’s crop of Republican candidates just a somewhat worse batch than usual? Or is it a bizarre collection of clowns that makes one wonder if we’ve entered some parallel universe in which McDonald’s is putting LSD in its french fries?