Stacy`s Soapbox: Randi Rhodes: Awkward Pairing

Thursday, January 5, 2012

Randi Rhodes: Awkward Pairing

Mitt Romney’s big event after his victory in Iowa was to fly to New Hampshire and have John McCain endorse him. It was a very pathetic post-victory event, but then it was a very pathetic victory in the first place. What does it say about Mitt Romney when his big post-Iowa endorsement is somebody that everyone knows hates Mitt Romney? Of course, what is Mitt going to do? Find someone who personally likes him to endorse him? Even Mitt Romney doesn’t have the time, money, or staff to do that!

John McCain may actually be the perfect endorser for Mitt Romney. It’s like McCain is telling other Republicans “look, if I can stomach this jerk, you can too.” John McCain endured torture at the hands of the North Vietnamese. So he’s one of the few people who can get up on a stage with Mitt Romney and endorse him without cracking under the pressure. Still, I suspect that if you look carefully at the video, while he’s giving his endorsement to Romney, John McCain is blinking Morse code for S-O-S.

The visuals for the event were horrible. I would blame the planners, but then they were working with Mitt Romney and John McCain. It would be like trying to design a Super Bowl halftime show featuring William Huang. With grandpa McCain and plastic-man Romney on stage, it looked like a retirement party for a boss nobody liked, thrown by his successor, who is even more unpopular. And that is exactly what it was. McCain actually checked his watch while he was onstage and Romney was speaking! In a sense, every Republican is checking their watch when they see Mitt Romney. They’re thinking “Crap! Is 2012 over yet?”

While he was on Bill O’Reilly (ahem), Rick Santorum defended his out-of-nowhere comments that he didn’t want to “make black people’s lives better” with other people’s money. Rick claims he wasn’t saying “blacks.” He said he started saying something, and it came out “blrrrgghhh…” So who were you talking about, Rick? Blue people? You don’t want to spend welfare dollars on all those lazy Smurfs? Let’s not go there! Next thing you know, Newt Gingrich will want to have young Smurfs cleaning the toilets at the elementary schools.

Today’s Homework | Discuss

The Washington Post's Eugene Robinson summed out Santorum perfectly last night: "He's not a little weird, he's realy weird..."