Bizarro World

This is from an article I read at the American Spectator Online:

In this world, a man can come back from four months of fighting a war and throw away his medals in a public demonstration, go before Congress and tell it that he and his comrades routinely committed war crimes and atrocities on the scale of Genghis Khan, then run for President on the basis of his military record.

In this world, a man can be a United States Senator who votes against every major weapons system and every military engagement, including a police action to expel Saddam Hussein from an egregiously overrun Kuwait, then run for President on the premise of being uniquely suited by temperament for the role of Commander-In-Chief.

In this world, a man can submit a tax return which shows that he and his wife employed an array of loopholes to pay a 12 percent tax rate on a grossly understated income of $5 million, run for President against a man who paid a 27 percent rate, and say that he will stop pandering to the wealthy and see that they pay their fair share.

In this world, a man can sit in the United States Senate for two decades, not have a single memorable legislative achievement to be distinguished by, have a voting record that marks him as Number One most extreme in one political direction, and then run for President as a centrist who will provide solidity and nuance.

In this world, a man can run for President and claim to have no connection to a series of proxy organizations receiving many millions of dollars from billionaires and running paranoiac ads that paint America as a puppet regime run by Saudi Arabia and Halliburton, yet demand that his opponent stop the ads run by opposing organizations.

In this world, a man can argue that an activity which his religion regards as murder is not within the province of his legislative mandate, that its practitioners deserve to be shielded from the scrutiny applied to all other medical procedures, and that his coreligionists should elect him based on their shared faith.

In this world, a man can openly condemn a war while the men are in the field, a war which he voted for, vilify the ally countries by calling them bribed and coerced, disparage the newly installed government of Iraq, boycott the Prime Minister's address to Congress, then maintain that his superior diplomacy will improve foreign relations.