Looks like MSNBC's Rachel Maddow got the memo on comparing likely GOP presidential candidate Scott Walker to unfortunate previous Democrat nominee Michael Dukakis. The ever-dutiful Maddow promptly complied and did her part to perpetuate a meme that hasn't a prayer of surviving otherwise.
As is surely seared in your memory forever, Dukakis made the ill-fated decision during the 1988 campaign to be photographed riding in a tank as a way of flexing nonexistent national security chops against George H.W. Bush, a former head of the CIA who saw combat in World War II as one of the youngest pilots in the Navy.
Over the weekend, Wisconsin governor Walker rode a Harley-Davidson, accompanied by hundreds of other cyclists, as part of freshman GOP senator Joni Ernst's "Roast and Ride" event. Seeing how Walker owns a motorcycle, his riding of one, even in the context of a looming campaign, might come across to normal people as unexceptional. Rest assured, such people haven't a prayer of finding employment or kindred spirits at MSNBC.
Starting with a tease of an upcoming segment, Maddow last night ridiculed Walker for his allegedly bizarre decision to do what millions of other Americans do on a regular basis --
A cardinal rule of presidential campaigning was violated this weekend. It's the rule about not putting funny stuff on top of your head when you are running for president. If we have noted this rule once (photo shown of then-Dem presidential nominee John Kerry in a hooded NASA "bunny suit"), we have noted this rule a million times. Don't put stuff on your head! Don't do this! Don't do this, don't do this (second photo shown of Dukakis in the tank, easily mistaken for Rocky the Flying Squirrel). Don't -- don't do it. It's been a rule for a long time for a reason, it's important. That rule was violated this weekend very badly. Details coming up.
Later in the show, Maddow elaborated on her strained premise after having demonstrating her willingness to toss fellow lefties Dukakis and Kerry under the tank for the sake of disparaging Walker --
This weekend I had actually thought for a hot minute that maybe Scott Walker wouldn't run for president because Scott Walker this weekend flat-out violated the I'm-running-for-president rule about not putting funny looking things on your head. Come on, Scott Walker. (Maddow forces a chuckle). Scott Walker this weekend at an Iowa event. He apparently has his own motorcycle but this was a rented one. He rented one for this Iowa event this weekend.
He could have also rented a different kind of helmet with a dark visor or something that didn't make him look like a cross between Dukakis in a tank and Charlie Brown, but he didn't. He went with the snow-globe look and, you know, hah! Maybe Scott Walker is OK here. Maybe we're in a new era where the candidates-in-funny-get-ups rule is just broken beyond repair and it doesn't apply anymore after New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie wowed everyone last week at Yankee Stadium (photo shown of Christie in a Yankees' uniform) in his get-up. But still, you know, you guys, you don't have to do this. Somebody in your life, somebody loves you, right? Somebody in your lives, somebody in your family, somebody on your campaign, or somebody should tell you, do not give the world the opportunity to take pictures of you like this. Not when you are running for president.
As a lifelong Red Sox fan, it paints me to admit that Maddow could be right about Christie's unfortunate choice of attire. Then again, I'd probably say that regardless of who was wearing it.
But when it comes to Walker, Maddow's reed-thin critique hinges on a single insignificant detail -- Look at the lame white guy without the dark visor!
Maddow also inexplicably believes that it was Dukakis's choice of headgear on the day he bravely rode in the tank that made him look ridiculous. It was actually Dukakis's delusional hope that he would remind people of Audie Murphy and not Barney Fife.
