You're right, if you looked at that headline and thought that could apply to maybe anyone in that clown car called the GOP presidential nomination. It's also that case that like it or not, we're going to be hearing about this contest everyday starting roughly a month or two ago. So, might as well have some fun with it. So let's make it a hashtag
#ThisGuyWantsToBePresident,make it an ongoing thing, and not just for me. Feel free to join in. After all, we know the Republicans have to pick someone, and we can't tell yet who, so let's just enjoy all of them, until such time as they announce they're not running, dropping out, or it's pretty clear the nomination will not be theirs. When a nominee is picked, we'll have a ready answer to the question, "What don't you like about him?"
So I tweeted a couple links using #ThisGuyWantsToBePresident. Their only particular significance is they happened to be links I saw when I came up with the notion. Whether the hashtag gets used by anyone else or dies quickly like pretty much all of them, I don't know (though I have a shrewd guess). We're talking about examples of the crazy, the willfully ignorant, the corrupt, the hypocritical, the empty jackets.
Starting with those two I tweeted:
Ohio Gov. John Kasich had a fake Lincoln quote too good to check out. This sounded like mid-19th century English to Kasich? âYou cannot build a little guy up by tearing a big guy down.â Maybe "guy" was used in the slang way we use it now and I just don't know that, but I do know one thing: one of the signs of a fake quote is the use of anachronistic language. If a quote of a famous person sounds not merely convenient for a speaker's point, but doesn't quite sound like something they would have said back then, that doesn't mean the quote is fake, but it sure screams for verification. Unless, you know, you're John Kasich. Or as was said by Kasich back when he was just another microphone hog in the US House, "Someone willing to just make up crap is thinking of running for president, really?" Actually, he never said that, I'm reasonably sure, because I just made it up. But wouldn't it be neat if he did say it? Therefore...
Rick Perry said unemployment statistics are "doctored". Dave Wiegel didn't mention the broader context of Perry's remark, "Itâs been massaged, itâs been doctored," but what context could there be in which that remark doesn't sound nuts other than "Only a grossly ignorant or delusional person could seriously say..."? Of course, this is hardly the first time Republicans have casually accused the BLS is faking the numbers to help Obama. So I guess Perry is just an echo rather than a full tin foil hat. Funny how they never release great numbers before an election when it might actually do Democrats some good. I'll just add that if you think the BLS could somehow fake the unemployment numbers, and all of the many people who work on compiling them would go along with this without a slip up, you might just be ready to believe anything, such as "Rick Perry really knows what he's talking about."