Our old pal Rick Santorum says a lot of batty things. However, a week, or two ago he made an observation about the current state of the republican race for the presidential nomination which was spot on.
At this early juncture, Santorum noted it isn't the official war chests of the candidates, or even the vast riches of the super pacs which are driving the campaign. No, in these heady moments, when the immense field has just stormed out of the gates, cash hasn't factored in yet. Right now, as the former Pennsylvania Senator bitterly complained, it is how intensely the media covers a candidate that sways the potential voting public.
He's right--during the next three months or so, unless you're found to be an out of control meth addict, or exposed as far to enamored with 13 year olds of either sex, there no such thing as bad press. You must keep in the fray and if it takes outlandish, even evil, gibberish in order to contend, so be it. This is the big time, after all, and the mind set at this point must be it's better to be profanely loud than smart.
All of which, of course, explains the current popularity of Donald Trump in the polls.
It also might explain the recent bizarre, not to mention violent, behavior of a couple of candidates who, in theory, want to be taken seriously. First was Rand Paul, who took a chain saw to the United States Tax Code. Then there was Lindsey Graham. He graphically showed us several ways to destroy a cell phone. Thanks to the aforementioned, Mr. Trump, Graham, at least, had some sort of excuse for his acts of vandalism.
Trump had said Graham's friend, John McCain, who spent close to six years in a North Vietnamese prison camp, wasn't a war hero. That prompted the Senator from South Carolina to call El Donald a, "jackass." Trump responded by first telling a crowd, Graham is, "an idiot," then revealing the Senator's private cell phone number to everyone on the planet.
Ah yes, quite presidential.
The whole, Gotta Get My Name Mentioned Somehow Syndrome, took a new turn over the weekend. Former Arkansas Governor, Mike Huckabee said in an interview with Breitbart News, the President's Iran nuclear deal would, "Take the Israelis and march them to the door of the oven."
No doubt he was trying to out do the crazed Canadian, Ted Cruz, who, on the same subject, had predicted, "The Obama administration will become the leading financier of terrorism in the world against America."
Current, Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton was so moved by the rhetoric he blurted out that Secretary of State, John Kerry, "Acted like Pontius Pilate for letting the International Atomic Energy Agency negotiate separate inspection provisions with Iran to verify the agreement."
Cotton isn't actually running for the presidency, but obviously he couldn't think of an excuse to steer clear of the hysteria. Perhaps he is fishing for a sweet spot in the diplomatic corps if a republican wins next year.
Today, Obama said the recent rants would be, "...ridiculous if they weren't so sad." He also speculated Huckabee's grotesque metaphor, "May just be an effort to push Mr. Trump out of the headlines."
Republican Ohio Governor, John Kasich, who is also in the race, sounded appalled by the lunacy. Yesterday, on Meet the Press, he told NBC's, Chuck Todd, "...I mean we're not running for class president. We're running for the Commander in Chief and the leadership of the United States of America. Grow up."
That's easier said than done. After complaining about the lurid media coverage driving the contest, Mr. Santorum told the editors of U.S. News and World Report, "Iran with a nuclear weapon is, in my opinion, the end. I have no doubt that Iran will use a nuclear weapon in any way possible to destroy the United States, to destroy Europe, to destroy Israel, or any other country that is in their way. They don't care about dying."
Given what is going on, the next step is for one of these clowns to claim we must send marines to the moon because it is ripe for a take over by radical Islamic terrorists based in Dearborn, Michigan.
One can only imagine what Dwight D. Eisenhower would think of this insane bullshit. The odds are it wouldn't be pretty.
sic vita est
7-27-15
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