If you worry about the post-holiday blues, then don't. The circus, packing all its clowns, is nearly in town.
About a dozen Republican presidential hopefuls will soon be declaring their intention to plague moderation and decency by out-right-flanking the other 11 on the campaign trail. Reports Ballot Box, The Hill's campaign blog, their handwringing over announcement-stagecraft has already begun.
"Republican candidates’ creativity will be tested with their decisions on how to tell the world they want to defeat Obama," writes the blog. In other words, their "creativity" will be a test not of ideas (Stop it, now you just stop that giggling, right now), but of what high-tech bells they can ring, what electronic stunts they can pull, what media tricks they can perform. With dogs. And ponies.
Democratic pollster Peter Hart, clearly out of touch with the insubstantial sizzle of Republican campaigning, advises the impossible: "I'm not a gimmick guy. I think you want to make an announcement that reflects your seriousness about being president. The ability to find that locale, that backdrop and the crowd that allows you to say it in the right way is important."
Well, damn. Perfection is out. The Neshoba County Fair in Philadelphia, Mississippi, is already taken -- was taken, in 1980, by Ronald Reagan. As the NY Times' Bob Herbert wrote during the run-up to the 2008 campaign: "[Reagan] knew exactly what he was doing when he told that crowd, 'I believe in states’ rights.' "
But Republican pollster Tyler Harber, positively giddy about the gimmicky, suggests the most novel approach. Ballot Box paraphrases Harber as saying that "highly rated conservative talk shows are an attractive option for candidates, particularly for Huckabee, who hosts one himself."
Now that I'd tune in for. Isn't there an old Robin Williams film in which he violently debates himself?
"You always have a target population in mind that you want to reach when you announce," added Harber, which, to my mind, pretty much confines every announcement to some Fox affiliate in Iowa.
Epolitics.com's Colin Delany, however, predicts "A Twitter announcement" as "Much more likely," which is far from anyone to redudiate.
The circus is almost here.