Head Case

Perry's flirtations with neo-Confederate organizations and symbols -- ably documented by Justin Elliott -- are so extraordinarily reprehensible that it should immediately and permanently disqualify him from being taken seriously for national office. The Confederacy was not a bunch of generally well-meaning dudes who went a little too far, it was a gang of racist traitors who launched a bloody war to defend a monstrously unjust institution. Having neo-Confederate sympathies in America should be equivalent to supporting the reconstituted Fascist party in Italy, or worse. It should not be considered something that 50 percent of the nation should be willing to look past, or even embrace.

And if that embracing happens it'll be in part because of a press that won't explicitly describe a disgusting sentimental attachment to a racist, brutal regime of oppression as anything other than an acceptable ploy to pick up Southern white support.

This, of course, is not even mentioning the time Rick Perry fucking killed an innocent person. Which, talk about disqualifying! This is the new front-runner, the man who doesn't care that he killed an innocent person. Whee!
~ from If Rick Perry Is Seriously a Presidential Front-Runner There's Something Wrong With All of Us by Alex Pareene ~

I think Pareene correctly affixes the blame to the American public, not the [potential] candidate himself. Throughout American history there have been people who had no business running for president...except in their own minds.

But something has changed over the past 10 - 15 years. Running for president has changed from a serious political endeavor into a sort of a Reality TV experience. Celebrity carries far more weight than substance. I mean, if someone with as little legislative and policy experience as Sarah Palin can be considered a serious candidate for the top ticket, the bar has been set incredibly low!

Compared to Palin, Perry is a rocket scientist. So what if he is as crazy and potentially dangerous as Michelle Bachmann?