Manchurian Candidates

Another day, another handful of negative stories about Rick Perry. Aggressive reportage of presidential candidates--especially if they are successful GOP governors--is nothing new. But the early onslaught should be a telltale of the carnage to come, affectionately known as Decision 2012, ultimate fighting edition.

The WaPo's hit piece today was entitled "The new Manchurian Candidate" on the main page, but clicking on the actual story yielded a headline of "The sad facts behind Rick Perry's Texas miracle". It details just how evil and slick this man from hillbilly country really is if he thinks he's going to get away with hoodwinking eastern liberal intellectuals into believing Texas is any better off than any blue state. Smoke and mirrors!

But wait, 'the new' Manchurian Candidate? Who was the old one? Was the WaPo actually making a comment about current president or do they mean almost every other new conservative challenger?

By the way, the Perry bashing isn't limited to the press. Ron Paul is finally spending some money to make a professional grade commercial, which turned out pretty good. In it he bashes Obama while also going after "slick" politicians, showing Perry and Romney. That's his angle, going after just about everyone, including Borg, Skynet, or any other machine trying to take over the planet. And the Paul-bots will go crazy over it.

But the commercial is conspicuously quiet on foreign policy. All it says is he will "bring peace", whatever that means. Sorta reminiscent of Obama saying he would be lowering the seas, all dreamy and full of air. Here's an exercise--try getting into a discussion about foreign policy with typical Paul fans and you'll quickly see how many of them are virtually the same as Michael Moore when it comes to wars and who's responsible (us) and what we should do (leave). Guess that wouldn't have played well in the spot.

Bryon York noted the Paul problem today, expressing the fret of the party bigwigs, just when we thought Palin and Bachmann were the frustrating ones. The fact is Ron Paul belongs in the mix every bit as much as Gary Johnson and they deserve a voice in the debates. People need to hear their message and make their own judgments. Adults can usually handle such things.

Besides, Paul may be right about both Perry and Romney, something that might not come out unless they stand on the same debate platform together and field tough questions. That's something the electorate deserves to see. Reality says Paul cannot expect to win the nomination by saying he's fine with Iran getting a bomb, or pretending we can end a war by retreating as we did in Vietnam. Such things don't 'bring peace', unless one is impressed with the Chamberlain variety. But Paul may be able to keep the pressure on the others from an economic standpoint.

Meanwhile, as the press focuses on Perry (and dumbness by Bachmann) the actual president is zipping around the corn belt in his fortified Mad Max campaign bus, campaigning and "getting in the faces" of "Tea Baggers" while calling himself the great moderate, all while denying he's even thinking about politics (as he plows the same ground the GOP candidates just plowed). And the press is happy to let him get away with it. Better get used to it.