The (Republican) Kings of Comedy

Bloopers, gaffes, blunders and flubs … the Republican presidential candidates for the 2012 U.S. election are putting on a vaudeville show.

The candidates for the Republican primaries are starting to make us forget all about Sarah Palin, who was, up until now, the undisputed queen of gaffes. The debates which pit the candidates against one another often turn into unintentional comedy acts, especially when Rick Perry, Herman Cain or Michele Bachmann open their mouths.

An early leader in the race to the White House, Rick Perry has had a string of catastrophic television appearances. In early November, he was incapable of responding to the CNBC reporter who asked him which federal agency he would eliminate if he were to be elected. Staring into the video camera, he remained silent for exactly 53 seconds. An eternity.

But Herman Cain is faring no better. Before becoming ensnared in accusations of sexual harassment, the political novice was a poll favorite. And then the blooper-fest began. Cain, for example, is worried about China’s efforts to procure nuclear weapons — which that country has possessed for almost half a century. Poorly informed, as he himself confessed, about the situation in Libya — he believed that it would have fallen into “the hands of the Taliban” — he is, on the other hand, capable of going on and on forever about the immigration policy that he dreams of carrying out. His Great Wall of China, his Berlin Wall, is the electrified barrier that he wants to build along the Mexican border: over 3,000 kilometers in total. The Internet being what it is, he was obliged to backpedal. It was “a joke,” it seems.

As for Michele Bachmann, she maintains that the vaccination against cervical cancer causes Down’s syndrome. Campaigning in Iowa, in early June, she congratulated the village of Waterloo—this is true!—for having brought John Wayne into the world. Except that the famous actor, who was indeed born in Iowa, wasn’t born in Waterloo. The only celebrity known to have lived in Waterloo is a certain John Wayne Gacy, also called “the Killer Clown,” who raped and killed 33 teenage boys in the 1970s!

Even the “serious” candidates are jumping on the bandwagon. Newt Gingrich, for example, the former Speaker of the House, trotted out his dire warning about the dangers of Sharia law in the United States. It is true that no one is totally safe from disaster. Didn’t Obama himself, when he was still just a candidate, announce his intention of campaigning in all 57 (instead of 50) American states? But everything has its moment. For now, it’s the Republicans who are putting on the show.