Looking at this past week, one would think that Halloween would be a pretty apolitical event – but not in Loudon County, Virginia where the county Republican Party circulated a Halloween poster showing Barack Obama with a bullet hole in his head and half of his skull missing. It’s nothing but fun and games in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Herman Cain has had a heck of a week “misremembering” sexual harassment charges and illustrating pure ignorance when it comes to foreign policy. And, paraphrasing Mr. Cain, Greece, an unimportant country on the Planet Cain (I bet he can’t spell “Papandreou” if you spotted him the 2 “p’s” and a “d”), almost brought the entire Planet Earth to the brink of financial cataclysm.

All Tricks and No Treat

This past Halloween the Republican Party of Louden County, Virginia thought that it would be a real fun thing to post a picture of President Obama as a zombie, complete with a bullet hole in his head and half of his skull missing. This is what passes for humor in parts of these United States.

The Virginia Republican Party denounced and disowned the offending posting and the Louden Company Republican Party apologized to “anyone who might have been offended”. But this disgusting display points out the toxicity of the political atmosphere where, in a country with a sad and unfortunate history of presidential assassinations and assassination attempts, serious political operatives would post photographs of the president as a dead man – all in the name of humor.

Very sad.

The Cain Spin Cycle

In a recent interview regarding his views on foreign policy, Herman Cain expressed his concern about China becoming a nuclear power. This might have been a useful observation in 1963, but China became a nuclear power in 1964 – 47 years ago! Even on the Planet Cain the news has to travel faster than this.

Perhaps Herman Cain was distracted by the slip sliding facts regarding sexual harassment charges that he remembers and the disremembers. And then he blames Rick Perry who blames Mitt Romney who blames Rick Perry.

The G.O.Tea Party is slipping into a cool, thick pool of stupid by the moment.

“Unimportant” Countries

Herman Cain famously said a few weeks ago that he didn’t have time to worry about “unimportant” countries as president – that’s why he would have advisors.
Given his lead in G.O.Tea Party polls, there are many members of the right wing of the right wing who think that dumb and dumber translates into useful foreign policy.
On that point, this past week, Greece, an “unimportant” country, brought Europe and by extension the whole world, to the brink of financial panic by wavering over a bailout strategy authored by the European Union. Greece has agreed to go along with the strategy, but not without a lot of drama.

Perhaps someone should let the G.O.Tea Party know that there is no such thing as an “unimportant” country.

Have a great weekend!