Category: Satire

Mitt Romney moving Joe Scarborough to tears

Politico’s chief political reporter Robert Simon wrote  yesterday that…

Paul Ryan has gone rogue. He is unleashed, unchained, off the hook.

“I hate to say this, but if Ryan wants to run for national office again, he’ll probably have to wash the stench of Romney off of him,” Craig Robinson, a former political director of the Republican Party of Iowa, told The New York Times on Sunday.

Though Ryan had already decided to distance himself from the floundering Romney campaign, he now feels totally uninhibited. Reportedly, he has been marching around his campaign bus, saying things like, “If Stench calls, take a message” and “Tell Stench I’m having finger sandwiches with Peggy Noonan and will text him later.”

Is this an insight into the fractured mindset of the Romney campaign? The latest set of polls, taken in the wake of the devastating 47% tape, show Obama widening his lead over Romney in key swing states, 10 points in the critical state of Ohio alone. In two nationwide polls, Quinipac has Obama up by 10, and the Washington Post by 8 . Plenty reason for the the rats aboard the USS Romney to begin abandoning ship.

Or is Simon’s account a lame attempt at satire? So argues a former colleague of his, detailed in this Bloomberg piece by Tobin Harshaw:

As Ben Smith of Buzzfeed, a former Politico blogger, tweeted: “So uh a lot of people seem not to have picked up that @politicoroger’s column was satire.” Put more succinctly by conservative blogger JammieWearingFool: “Satire should actually be funny.”

Or, at least it should be pretty obvious. There is no underestimating the literal-mindedness of the American reader: Years ago when I worked at the Times we published a satirical op-ed column by Steve Martin riffing on the idea that a NASA Mars probe had discovered millions of kittens on the Red Planet. Shortly thereafter, a subscriber sent a terse letter to the editor asking us to “inform your science correspondent” that the lack of oxygen on Mars made kitten infestation highly unlikely.

Naturally, no writer wants to put a blinking sign indicating “This Is a Joke” above his or her parody piece. But editors should realize that if there is even a chance that such a sign is necessary, it’s probably best to spike the whole idea. Otherwise, you might end up fooling a lot of people, maybe even a Nobel Prize winner.

Well, it’s been a day and a half since Simon posted his article and so far no mea culpas. Having indulged in a little (?) satire ourselves here at US, we heartily support its use. But Politico ain’t no Daily Show. It has, since its inception, determinedly built its brand as serious mainstream Village insiders. So satire in this case seems unlikely.

[Update: 1:25 PM PST: Simon has apparently added an “Author’s Note” that indicates he was, in fact, being satirical.]

CW has it that the current weak state of the economy should allow any competent GOP ticket to take back the White House. Same goes for the Senate, especially given the disparate number of Democratic seats up for grabs. But a Romney fail will take a lot of down-ticket candidates with him, putting even the House in play. If these polls hold up, the suppressed contempt for Romney amongst Ryan’s Teabagger base will come roaring back to the surface.

In the video clip above, that chanting your hear for Ryan in the background is like the first scraping sounds the crew and passengers heard when the Titantic hit the iceberg that took it to a watery grave. Here’s hoping that the MSM throws the Romney an anvil instead of a life preserver.