GOP candidates are caricatures, TV characters-wild, odd, bizarre, "bigger than life", outrageous, dangerous. (Rick Perry, Michelle Bachmann, Sarah Palin) These three are right out of a Hollywood sitcom. (not a really funny one tho)
It is not surprising that the 24 hour news cycle is dominated by the GOP equivilent of the Jersey Shore. (Rick, Michelle and Sarah) Unfortuneatly the viewers, er, voters, cannot discriminate fiction from reality. Watch the news (any channel other than BBC, Al Jazeera..) and you will see "real" news (wars, famine, etc.) intermixed with the squirrel story. The "reporters" make silly faces and their tone half-chuckles. Silly dancing squirrel, funny skateboarding dog, comment from a seven year old that they ARE NOT looking forward to school starting...with the same deference given to casualties in Afghanistan. Huh? What? We are numb to reality-we respond to the Casey Anthony style story with (???) ANGER, while wars, political hostage taking, are delegated to the runner at the bottom of the screen. We are spoon fed sound bites from talking breasts (and we supposed to respect them?). Enter Barack Obama as the designated Adult in the Room. (laugh track) Do we like it when Dad gets serious? Is it more entertaining when the Bombastic Baffoon is selling snake oil at the Fair? (and do we go to the public execution at the town square?) When Rick rolls up his sleeves, puts that foot on the haybale are we not mistaking him for Burt Lancaster as Elmer Gantry? Barack will have a hard time as a real person with a real request of this electorate, he is asking for all to be reality based (a "balanced approach") to be rational and sensible. Doesn't sound like something these viewers, er, voters will be inclined to do.