The politician who goes SCUBA diving with American flags has now officially co-opted "The Duke." How long until Captain America shows up to a fundraiser playing Toby Keith songs on a guitar strung with hairs from Osama bin Laden's ponytail?
It's the first high-profile endorsement of the 2012 election cycle to be made by the ghost of a movie star, and it's definitely the first endorsement of an African-American by the ghost of a self-proclaimed white supremacist.
Wayne, an independent-minded conservative, had plenty of reasonable political views -- but he also declared, in his infamous 1971 interview with Playboy, that "we can't all of a sudden get down on our knees and turn everything over to the leadership of the blacks. I believe in white supremacy until the blacks are educated to a point of responsibility."
As for West, he's got ties to a white supremacist group too -- the Outlaws motorcycle gang, which West, at the very least, defended in a letter to a supporter.
He posted the Wayne photograph on his campaign's Facebook page last night with the message, "We will be the #1 target for Washington liberals because of our vocal opposition to their failed big government economic policies. We're ready for the fight, especially with a guy like this watching our back."
If that doesn't yet seem weird to you, consider that (a) John Wayne was not an actual Green Beret, and (b) John Wayne has been in a box in the ground for almost 33 years.
And this isn't the first time West has played up his status as the "#1 target for Washington liberals" -- though on a Lincoln Day speech in January, it wasn't "vocal opposition" that got him there. He blamed -- really -- "freedom."
At least he's got John Wayne to help out now.
