The Silence and The Fury

I'm somewhat sympathetic to people who struggle with public speaking, but, um, that sympathy largely disappears when those people have or seek power.

First up we have Jan Brewer, Governor of Arizona, who signed and has championed the state's anti-immigration laws, and falsely claimed that illegal immigrants were beheading people in the desert. In a debate with her opponent in the governor's race, this was Brewer's opening statement:



Brewer ignored questions about her "beheadings" claims multiple times:



Later, Brewer finally made a weak backpedal on her claim about headless bodies. Very big of her. It's a tough standard, being expected to not just make crap up, not play demagogue, and to take responsibility for one's statements.

However, despite all this, Brewer still has a commanding lead in the polls, and her train wreck of a debate performance only endeared her more to right-wingers. That's not too surprising, nor is Brewer's decision not to have any more debates.

Next up we have Phil Davison, candidate for Treasurer of the Stark County GOP in Ohio. John Cole describes him sharply as "part Sam Kinison and part Andy Kaufman" (albeit without Kinison's swearing). Be warned that it'll be hard to watch this without laughing:

Cole's comments thread is pretty funny, as well – as folks point out, Davison (who's clearly nervous) has to check where he's from and forgets one of his favorite quotations.

Zandar also points out that Davison pairs well with Republican candidate for Governor of Tennessee, Basil Marceaux. However, Marceaux finished fifth in the GOP primaries, and Davison also lost (Gary Farber gives more background).

As we've seen from the tea partiers, crazy is popular, but not just any form of crazy will do.