CT Blue

What’s with the New York Times? Don’t they know that Rick Perry is so yesterday? The Times is running a front page piece on the way Perry’s military background (he managed to stay stateside like Bush, but did it in the Air Force) might shape the presidency that everyone now agrees will never happen.
 
The article might very well be incisive, and the unlucky denizens of some alternate universe, where Perry picked different handlers and kept his mouth shut, might find out if its conclusions are true. But here in our world you may as well speculate about, for instance, how a Santorum presidency might affect our relationship with the Vatican; whether Herman Cain, if elected to the post that he has now talked himself out of, would serve pizza at state functions; or whether Michelle Bachmann’s hairdresser will be able to come up with a new hairdo every day of the four years of her hypothetical presidency. 
 
It would be interesting to know, in light of recent polls, why the Times still considers Perry front tier, when it would never give this sort of attention to someone like Ron Paul, who, when he gets attention at all, is written off as a crackpot or cult leader. Not that I disagree with either characterization, but why continue to treat a joke like Perry so seriously? Maybe it’s not just Republicans. Maybe everyone, including the press, is repelled by the idea of a Mitt Romney candidacy, and will do anything, including indulging in delusional thinking, to avoid facing the inevitable.