Quintessential Villager, John Dickerson, Chief Political Correspondent for Slate, has either accidentally published an audition piece he wrote for The Onion, or he has truly jumped the shark. In a sidebar to his post, Mr. Dickerson emphasizes his gobsmacking main point about the 2016 GOP Presidential field, or as I call it, his punch line:
The class of candidates for 2016 has the potential to be the most robust in almost 40 years—perhaps in modern Republican history.
For a more serious take on the 2016 GOP field, see Jed Lewison's post on Chris Christie, yesterday, subtitled:
The 2016 GOP presidential field absolutely sucks.
If you doubt that Mr. Dickerson's work is satire, consider that in describing the GOP field he uses the word "ideas" 22 times, but actually specifically mentions just one idea, Herman Cain's ridiculous and ruinous 9-9-9 tax proposal from 2012, which Mr. Dickerson cites as "the most memorable idea of 2012". Is that not comedy gold?
If you still doubt the nature of the article, consider the reaction to it by Slate readers, who posted over 1,700 comments and rated this the top comment:
I love it when Slate reprints articles from The Onion.
Alas, I fear that Mr. Dickerson did not intend to post satire, but intends to report on the 2016 GOP Presidential field as though Republican primary voters are just lost sheep wandering around looking for someone with the right "ideas" to lead them. Psst, Mr. Dickerson, in the real world, Republicans hate ideas and mistrust people, like scientists, who have ideas. Real Republicans are much more comfortable with orthodoxy and rigidity.
Another D.C. Villager gone nose-deaf to irony.