Cliff Schechter, AJE: The Real Housewives of Iowa
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2011/12/20111230141925653409.html
This year we've seen it all. Protest movements have swept the world, as people from Cairo to Cleveland have stood up against oligarchy and its kissing cousin, venality. Osama bin Laden, the murderous mastermind of the 9/11 attack and many others like it, at last met his Waterloo.
And finally, with reality TV stars, radio-talk-show hosts and television pundits making up roughly 90 per cent of the current GOP presidential field - or those who led in polls at one time and flirted with entering the race (see Palin, Sarah and Trump, megalomaniac) - entertainment and politics in the United States have finally gone from symbiotic to simply redundant.
The latter point has been drilled home on a regular basis as we've entered the final sprint towards the inevitable GOP crash course with disharmony, the Iowa Caucuses on January 3. From the wackiness of what is happening up there, it would seem quite clear that the bread and circuses have made their way up among the maize, you know, without the bread part.
First there is the Santorum Surge - which I'd advise you not to try and google.
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