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Tuesday, April 3, 2012

The Republican Primary- A Musical - Act 2 Begins

Act 2- Preamble- It is now April 3 nearly a month after Super Tuesday. Only Romney, Santorum, Gingrich and Paul remain. It has been a slow march through March, but now it appears that Romney will be the last man standing. Yet, none of the other 3 contenders are ready to pack it in. The present delegate count for each candidate is set forth on a large screen in the background. The chorus stands on stage and tells us what remains.

Scene 1-  "Wherever I go, ego" tells the tale of the former speaker with the super-sized mouth and a superiority complex. Gingrich is portrayed as a man so in love with hearing the sound of his own voice that he can hear nothing else. His "wait til the convention" theme is translated to mean "I am out of money and ideas but I won't give any of you the satisfaction of seeing me quit." As the song finishes, we see Gingrich walk across the stage, alone.. He turns to the screen behind him, stares for a few seconds, and then drops to his knees and starts to cry, head in hands.

Scene 2- "Where in the world is Ron Paul" asks the question as to the state in which we find this candidate, literally and figuratively, on the night of the primaries in Washington, DC, Maryland and Wisconsin. The answers are California and his own universe. In the world of Mr. Paul, this is not about whether you win or lose, but only that you continue to be eccentric and unsettling. For Ron Paul, it is enough that he is there as an irritant, a bug that flies around your head that can't be swatted away. "Where in the world is Ron Paul" ends by saying "he is right where he wants to be, we just can't  seem to find him."

Scene 3-  In "The Chosen One" we learn of a candidate who understands that outside the states where the crazy evangelicals reside in large numbers, his numbers are small. And so what if most of the country thinks he might be the illegitimate love child of Sarah Palin and Rush Limbaugh? He has a calling and a purpose and a message from God. Unfortunately, it turns out that he is unable to decipher what that message is and thinks it was either to to tell him to keep the heat up on Romney, or keep the heat up to 62 degrees in his house. But it doesn't matter, because either way God has chosen to speak to him. And so the song concludes with Santorum entering the stage, looking up to the heavens and, with arms outstretched, asking for guidance. And then everything goes black.

Scene 4- The chorus begins "Starting Over" by singing the line from the John Lennon tune. "It'll be just like starting over" tells of the "etch-a-sketch" man and his ability to recast himself. It portrays Romney not so much as a man with shifting values, but as one with no values at all. "It is not hard to change, when all you are is a mirage, an invention of the moment". Romney appears, wearing a tee shirt reading 'Romney, 2012, a man with the answers to ALL your questions." As he turns to study the delegate count on the wall behind him, we see the reverse side of his shirt which reads, "Romney 2012, a man with ANY answer to all your questions."

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Love Act 2, I must say.

A