Friday, August 12, 2011

A Juxtaposition: Reality vs. Fairyland

There are few certainties in life. But there is at least one thing that you can absolutely bank on. Michele Bachmann (aka "Crazy Eyes") is never going to be president of these United States ― Ever. Full stop. And the entire Washington press corps (not to mention both political parties) knows it. Yet it covers "frontrunner" Bachmann as if she were the White House heir apparent.

This morning, however, we got a delicious glimpse of the games journalists play inside the DC media bubble. Occasionally, somebody slips up and - gasp! - utters the truth. Today was Joe Scarborough's turn.

Critiquing Bachmann's debate performance last night, Scarborough (the conservative MSNBC host) said that anybody who votes for her is "too stupid to prognosticate and too stupid to run Slurpee machines in Des Moines." And just to be absolutely clear, Scarborough added: "Michele Bachmann is a joke ... her candidacy is a joke, and anybody that sits here and says she has any chance of winning anything is out of their mind." On a roll, he even slammed Iowa Republicans: "If you let her win, you prove your irrelevance once again." Yowzer. In media circles this is practically blasphemy. But then, as George Bernard Shaw said, all "great truths" begin there.

FAST CUT TO: The Washington Post website where two co-stars of DC's alternate universe, Aaron Blake and Chris Cillizza, provided their take from inside the Looking-Glass. "Bachmann handled herself with the aplomb" and passed her "first major test as the Iowa frontrunner at Thursday's debate." ["She's ALIVE!" as Young Frankenstein might exclaim.] In other words, the faux game of political musical chairs is still afoot! After all, we've got more tittle-tattle to write, more papers to sell, more page hits to win, and more TV appearances to make. Their motto (with apologies to Rev. Jackson): Keep hype alive!

Andrew Sullivan wondered: "If Bachmann is a joke, what does that make Palin?" (Easy: a court jester.) You can't make this stuff up, folks.

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