Political commentators are just finding out what we knew all along...

http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=16686160&BRD=1817&PAG=461&dept_id=222071&rfi=6

The triumph of low expectations
 
 
By BRUCE WEST, Special to the Examiner May 24, 2006 
 
"Papoon, Papoon for President

You know there's no one to blame

Papoon for Chief Resident

You know he's not insane."

- 1972 Campaign Song 
 
It was 1972 and George Papoon was the candidate for the Natural
Surrealist Party. Papoon's platform was simple: he realized his
incompetence and vowed to take an immediate, extended vacation
upon election, thereby leaving the government in more capable
hands and ensuring that he wouldn't be responsible for anything
that happened.

"Not responsible!" was the first half of his campaign cry. The
remaining part of the platform was "Not insane!" and followed
the multitudinous voices joined in the catchy ditty presented
at the head of this column. Indeed, Papoon had been released
from a mental institution after extensive treatment. He claimed
to be the only candidate in history who was documented to be
not insane. "Who knows about the rest of them?" he famously
asked about the other candidates. For all we knew, they were
all crazy. 

So it is today. The bunch we have in Washington certainly act
crazy enough but, unlike Geo Papoon, they cloak themselves in
the mantle of low expectations while expanding executive power.
"It's somebody else's fault," they seem to cry when something
goes wrong, as it often does. With our current president, the
buck always stops elsewhere. The big difference is Geo Papoon
was the invention of the comedy troupe, Firesign Theater, and
Geo Bush is president of the United States.

...

That's another legacy of the oldest son of a wealthy and important
family: Power. The power to expunge records, to rewrite history,
to deny responsibility and extract their brethren from any
difficulty in which he involves himself. 

Papoon hadn't thought of that. I wonder if he would have inserted
it into his campaign song? 


Aw, come on. Squeeze the wheeze.
  -- Firesign Theatre