If you belong to the party that currently holds the White House, there is almost nothing so wildly entertaining as watching opposition party maneaters swarm into a feeding frenzy when they think they smell an open wound on one of their own kind. It's like watching wild antelope race across the savanna, and then suddenly turn and attack the weakest of their own herd. (Okay, that would actually be grotesque to see in the animal world, but it's great when you are watching opposition party politics.)
At last night's Republican presidential debate in Tampa, Texas Governor and newly-crowned front runner Rick Perry was the seemingly pre-selected target of his peers. Perry took shots from a host of other candidates on topics ranging from taxes to Social Security to the mandated vaccine against HPV in young girls. Pundits generally say that Perry weathered the attack reasonably well...but I say, who cares!
The almost-primary-season Republican political cannibalism is well underway, and that's the show I'm excited to see. The only thing I will enjoy more is when the race really heats up and they all take outlandish and absurd ultra right-wing political positions ("God makes my tough political decisions," "Gays aren't actually people," "For better or worse, James Earl Ray was just trying to make a point") that will push me solidly back toward my Democratic core and cement my support for President Obama in 2012.
I know the nature of televised intra-party political debates encourages politicians to say the craziest things. Still, these eat-your-own party member buffets do help us see how far to the right (or left) a candidate will go to differentiate him/herself from the field. They probably don't truly believe all the wacky shit they say during the intra-party debates, but they might. Right, Michele Bachmann?
wait - weren't you still watching tennis when the cannibal party started last night?
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