AND WE WOULD RATHER HAVE HAD JOHN WAYNE
What the hell is wrong with Rick Perry? He decides to make a pitch for evangelical votes in Iowa by attacking gay people in an ad -- but then he refrains from embodying his own pander. Idiot -- doesn't he know that when you're baiting a despised group and they confront you in person, you're supposed to say something contemptuous to their faces, a la Chris Christie (or Newt Gingrich, or Rudy Giuliani in his heyday)? You're not supposed to just walk away:
Ames, Ia. -- A packed coffee house where Rick Perry spoke this afternoon turned into a bit of a ruckus that left the candidate heading out the back door and straight to his vehicle after several Iowans screamed questions about his views on gays.
"Why do you hate gay people so much," someone in the audience screamed as Perry wrapped up a campaign stop without taking questions from the audience.
"Go back to Texas" another screamed from the back of Cafe Diem coffee shop in Ames....
If Perry had attacked them, nastily but without losing his cool, for demanding "special rights," Roger Ailes would see starbursts. He'd stop daydreaming about a late entry by Governor Christie and decide Perry had the right stuff. Perry would poised to take advantage of a Gingrich collapse.
But no -- Perry just leaves. Bizarrely, as he's leaving, we cut to what may or may not be a staged attempt at a Mean Joe Greene Coke commercial moment.
Perry soon left the coffee shop and was on his way out when a young boy asked if he would give him an autograph. Perry gave him a signature and bolted for his vehicle.
I'm not sure he bolts, exactly -- but he sure looks as if he left the fray terrified that he might get something on him. Yes, that's part of the classic anti-gay reaction to gay people -- but a real man puts the boot in, figuratively if not literally, right? You get gay cooties on you if you have a civil exchange with a gay person, but not if you hurt a gay person, right?
And then there's this:
Iowa State University associate professor Warren Blumenfeld was one who shouted questions to Perry, asking him why he was marginalizing and demonizing non-Christians.
"The implication is if you're gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgendered, you're not a real American," said Blumenfeld, who teaches studies about sexuality. "He is marginalizing people and dividing this country, and he’s demonizing proud Americans who just don’t have the social identities as he has."
A true conservative would join with the right-wing noise machine to demonize this taxpayer-funded professor until he was fired or pressured to resign.
C'mon, Rick! Bring the hate! No wonder you're in single digits!
