B. S. = Ben Stein (UPDATED/COMPLETED)

You'd think Ben Stein would know better than to cast the "Fuhrer" analogies around casually, but he seems to have gone off the deep end in the last few months. Maybe he's just hanging about w/ bad influences (Mormon moron) Glenn Beck being the latest, doubtless it's frustration that his party has stuck itself w/ the 21st century Bob Dole as a putative candidate, while the Dems have someone who can string together several sentences at a time & appears thoughtful rather than brain-dead, but Stein (& many other Repubs; wait for it, the hysteria will only mount) came up w/ a good one yesterday.

STEIN: I want -- I'm glad you brought up this Denver thing. I don't like the idea of Senator Obama giving his acceptance speech in front of 75,000 wildly cheering people. That is not the way we do things in political parties in the United States of America. We have a contained number of people in an arena. Seventy-five-thousand people at an outdoor sports palace, well, that's something the Fuehrer [sic] would have done. And I think whoever is advising Senator Obama to do this is bringing up all kinds of very unfortunate images from the past.

BECK: Well, yeah, you know what? I've been -- I've been saying that we're headed towards a Mussolini-style presidency forever. STEIN: Well, I think -- BECK: I mean it's crazy. STEIN: It's a scary situation. I mean, I think he has to recognize some bounds on his own ego. I understand politicians are politicians because they have ego deficit problems and they try to cure them by having lots of worship and adulation and adoration. But 75,000 people screaming at an outdoor arena, that's just too much. It's just -- it's scarily authoritarian.

But the best part: "Contained number of people in an arena." Ben likes his politics like himself. Buttoned down w/ a stick up the ass. Gawd forbid there should be any spontaneity or inspiration. What would you bet that if McCain could pull off something like this, Stein would be calling it a new day in America, blah, blah, blah? Actually finished 26 July 2008 @ 1119.