Values Voters 2014 is a Commentary on the 2016 GOP Goat Rodeo

It's probably no coincidence that the Value Voters Hootenany considers Sarah Palin as much of a draw as CPAC does. They adore prop comedy. (Since Dennis Miller hasn't made regular folks laugh since the 1990's, I really think wingnut welfare should at least comp him a rubber chicken. If he can't incorporate it into his act, maybe he can bite it.)  Once again, Senator Ted "Tailgunner" Cruz is the beneficiary of the Bible-based zeitgeist. (Nota bene: Christie was not invited and finished behind Biden. Even us big-time lefties aren't putting Biden in our "sure thing" column. If he's winning over Christie in the VV14 poll, that's kind of a message, you think?) But I can't pretend that I know. I don't speak "Values Voters" lingo fluently.

I will say, I think Palin is irrelevant, but everyone has known that since 2009. She's there for schtick, and I commend the right wing for keeping vaudeville alive. But Santorum and Huckabee and Rand Paul and Cruz all spoke (and Anne Laurie at Balloon-Juice gives great re-cap of all of them) and all kind of gave a hint into the ways they aren't serious 2016 candidates.

I see things as an internetizen first and foremost--if it is on Youtube, it cannot die. I don't know how anyone can drop red meat at a VV do, and then pretend it doesn't exist in a general election. So if, say, Bobby Jindal, wants to allege Barack Obama doesn't understand American exceptionalism in a week where "we" are bombing ISIL in Syria just because--he's out on a ridiculous limb. Ditto Rand Paul on "personhood", or Cruz on a lot of things.

I see easily a time when the Values Voters' do is a thing to avoid, because I don't see anyone selected by it in a straw poll as viable in any general election. But I do see the GOP probably pandering to that crowd for some time to come, anyway.