Some things you need to know about Christine O’Donnell this morning: She is not really a witch, she’s you — and her father is not the ur-Bozo the Clown. Sideshow, anyone?
What do you get when you hire the guy who made Carly Fiorina’s “Demon Sheep” ad for a candidate who has already provided bloggers and comedians such sweet respite? Denials that she is a witch (something no one ever took seriously), behind a smoky black background, because she is you. You being the resume-fudging, cheery-moral-absolutism-spouting, financially-troubled Delawarean, presumably.
You’ll remember this “elect me because I’m just like you” line from, among many other examples, Sarah Palin and George W. Bush. Will Bunch notes that it goes back even further:
We shouldn’t get fooled by O’Donnell and her attempt at reverse sorcery here. I’m reminded of a famous line from the back at the dawn of the age of resentment back in 1970 when a GOP senator named Roman Hruska argued for a lame Richard Nixon Supreme Court nominee by saying: “There are a lot of mediocre judges and people and lawyers. They are entitled to a little representation, aren’t they?
Meanwhile, The New York Times profile of O’Donnell over the weekend is coming under fire from Bozo the Clown enthusiasts online, who doubted the story’s claim that O’Donnell’s father played Bozo the clown:
“Anybody who would lie about a cherished childhood icon is unqualified to serve in the United States Senate,” the Web site concluded, more in sorrow than in outrage. “Really. It’s in the Constitution. Look it up.”
Says writer Mark Leibovitch, “Needless to say, I was mortified to have possibly played a small role in perpetrating such a falsehood.” An extra round of factchecking revealed the unstable notion of truth in human life: Daniel O’Donnell was a Bozo, part time, but lacked the sterling credentials of a real one. His daughter, on the other hand, still has a chance.
