Is Buddy Roemer any worse a candidate than "Brokeback Rick" Perry? (Probably not, but is he any BETTER?)

So Brokeback Rick now takes fashion cues from gay movie cowboys? (Thanks to John Aravosis at AmericaBlog for the artwork. And you can click on it to enlarge.) Actually, this is the most (only?) appealing thing I've ever heard about Rick. But now it appears that the buttload of homo-hating for which he donned his gay apparel may have done him more harm than good; see below.

"At first, he thought an audience would be waiting for him. . . .

"He had been out of politics for almost 20 years, but he still felt confident that his opinions would resonate. Repeal health-care reform. Raise the eligibility age for Social Security. Seal the border and enforce immigration laws. . . .

" 'I got into the race because I thought I was the right person,' he said, 'and because I thought I could win.' "

-- from "Buddy Roemer among those struggling for a slot in GOP presidential race," in the Style section of the Washington Post

by Ken

So what does qualify somebody to be a presidential candidate? (Forget what qualifies somebody to be president. That discussion is apparently permanently off the table.) The question seems very much on the mind on one of the truly obscure 2012 GOP hopefuls, dimly remembered former one-term Democrat-then-Republican Louisiana Gov. Buddy Roemer, who can't crash any of the debates and apparently can't afford to buy his way onto state ballots that require cash upfront.

The only thing more pathetic than the "lessons" Our Buddy has learned on the campaign trail are his delusions that he's presidential material. ("It was a divided country, and he had been a Democrat and now a Republican"?) But hey, when you look and see what Republicans now consider presidential material, who's to judge?

There's maybe a glimmer of interest in learning that Our Buddy --

built a chain of community banks worth nearly $1 billion without foreclosing on a single customer, he said. The tea party and Occupy Wall Street were protesting greed and corruption, and Roemer had never accepted political donations of more than $100.

That could be something about the community banks, if the facts stand up to this blithe description -- though that's still kind of thin as a presidential qualification. As for those $100 donations, consider that Our Buddy hasn't, as far as I know, run for anything since his losing gubernatorial reelection race in 1991 -- in Louisiana, remember.

Poor Buddy Roemer! According to the punishingly long Washington Post Style-section piece from which I've quoted above, he's mystified as to why his campaign isn't lighting up the race. And I suppose any reasonable person would have a grain of sympathy when he surveys the field of "serious" GOP candidates and observes:

“This is the best our party has to offer? How the heck did we decide that these are our most electable candidates?”

But then there's this:

"What I’m learning is that becoming president is not always about experience and ideas. It’s also about money, fame and momentum.”

Er . . . Buddy, Buddy, Buddy! You're just learning this? After you plunged into the race? Um, are you maybe new to this politics business? Any sympathy one may have for Buddy's plight should be eased by recalling that what he means by "ideas" is: Repeal health-care reform. Raise the eligibility age for Social Security. Seal the border and enforce immigration laws.

Here's Our Buddy in New Hampshire, the state that seems to be the beginning and end of his presidential campaign "strategy":

He phoned 20 New Hampshire voters each day and sometimes had to summon the courage to explain why he was calling. “I was embarrassed to say I was running for president, because nobody had even heard of me,” he said.

AS FOR BROKEBACK RICK AND HIS CAMPAIGN
TO BE AMERICA'S NO. 1 HOMO-HATER . . .

Word is (see Lisa Derrick's report on La Figa) that the YouTube clip of Brokeback Rick jumping ugly on teh gays is racking up a staggering ratio of "dislikes" to "likes." Plus Sam Stein had a big story on HuffPost: "Rick Perry's Anti-Gay Iowa Ad Divides His Top Staff." (It's even percolated to the New York Times: "Perry’s Anti-Gay Rights Focus Is Divisive Even to Staff.")

The most vocal naysayer in the Perry camp, pollster Tony Fabrizio, who has done a fair amount of work for LGBT-friendly conservatives (including the Log Cabin Republicans). Incredibly, though, he has confirmed his lack of ease. But Sam Stein reports that a growing number of the younger staffers on whom Republicans increasingly reply aren't at all happy about the reversion to old-line homophobia. But Sam reports that the principal creator of the ad, longtime GOP operative Nelson Warfield, stands by the initiative.

Presumably Warfield is aware that there's an opening for a hard-right candidate created by hard-right dissatisfaction with Willard Inc. But does he really think the party can afford to nominate a candidate who has the support only of the hardest of the hard right?

#

UPDATE FROM HOWIE: It Isn't Disco But...

Perry may be too square for Lady Gaga, Erasure or even Cher but isn't that music in his gay jacket fashion ad by homopsexual composer Aaron Copland? Just asking.

What Ever Happened To Ennis Del Mar? The Contributions Of Gays To The Olde American West

Wednesday, New York State joined California and Maine in voting down marriage equality. That same day, I learned that the Autry National Center, just a hop, skip and a jump from where I live in Los Angeles, had recently become the first institution of its kind to formally acknowledge the contributions of the LGBT community to Western American culture. On December 13, they will launch Out West, a four-part year-long series exploring the topic, with the program “What Ever Happened To Ennis Del Mar?”  L.A. Times film critic Kenneth Turan, USC Professor William Handley and Pitzer Professor Peter Nardi are on a panel moderated by University of New Mexico Professor Virginia Scharff. It seemed timely to support the strides that have been made with the Autry’s unprecedented programming-- remarkable for a conservative institution, especially given what is transpiring in the political arena-- and to point out the importance of engaging in such discussions.  To that end, I invited author and filmmaker Gregory Hinton, who conceived the Out West series, to post about the project: 

OUT WEST AT THE AUTRY

-by Gregory Hinton

Like a molten branding iron, the acclaimed Laramie Project and the groundbreaking Brokeback Mountain seared into the collective national consciousness the notion that it might not be so easy to be Gay in the West. Both were deeply elegiac yet phenomenally successful, critically and commercially. And it makes me wonder. 
 
If it’s really so bad in the rural west, why does anybody gay stay? With all the risks, what are the rewards? What’s it really like to be Gay or Lesbian and ‘out’ in the American West? 
    
Thus, on December 13th, the Autry National Center in Los Angeles commences with Out West, a 2009-2010 scholarly program series dedicated to illuminating the contributions of Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals, and Transgenders (LGBTs) to the history and culture of the American west.
   
The first program is called, Whatever Happened to Ennis del Mar? 

It is unprecedented for a Western art museum of the Autry’s stature to take such a step.  Of the twelve major American art museums which comprise Museums West, the institution which bears Gene Autry’s name is the first to pose this provocative question.
 
I was born in rural Montana, raised in Wyoming, and educated in Colorado. I have all the requisite Western bona fides and I happen to be gay.  A year ago I was researching Night Rodeo, my fifth novel set against the backdrop of 1950’s Wyoming, and took a stroll through the Gallery of Imagination, the extensive and beautiful western film gallery at the Autry. 
 
Strolling past the Western movie memorabilia of Buck Jones, Roy Rogers, Gary Cooper and John Wayne, I noticed something missing in the contemporary westerns case. There was no mention of Ang Lee’s Brokeback Mountain.  

I got an idea. A friend told me the iconic, intertwined shirts worn by Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal had been sold for $100,000 at a charity auction. On New Year’s Day 2009, I contacted the shirts’ owner, collector Tom Gregory, and asked his permission to attempt to place the shirts in the Autry. He generously agreed.
 
I never thought the Autry would accept them but they did. Six months later, with Mrs. Gene Autry presiding, the Brokeback Shirts were installed in the contemporary westerns case in the gallery of imagination. At the same event, the Autry Library announced its intention to include the archives of the International Gay Rodeo Association (IGRA) in its permanent rodeo collection. 
 
Yes. You read that right. There is a national gay rodeo association, with 5,000 members, 26 member associations, and 50,000 annual attendees. Gay rodeo allows those who feel forced to leave the country for the safety, community, and companionship of the city to reclaim their country heritage. 
 
The rewards are many for those LGBTs who remain in the rural West. For those of us who come from the west, it is in our blood and never lets us go.
 
To that point, I recently returned to Wyoming with the ashes of my older brother, who also happened to be gay and scattered them, per his wishes, (with those of his partner of thirty years) in the Crazy Woman Creek in the blue shadow of the Big Horn Mountains. After decades in urban Southern California, my western brother yearned for his rural past till the end.