The GOP debaters in the Kingdom of Moo

WHEN I GLANCED at the latest edition of the Republican presidential debates, it seemed that a more appropriate setting for such bizarre behavior would be a cave. There, they could duke it out in the setting of Alley Oop's Kingdom of Moo without putting any further strain on the outside world. Unless, of course, you got a laugh out of the Tampa audience's jeering section as it booed a gay soldier. In earlier versions of the debate tour, the mere mention of a voluntarily uninsured sick man being left to die brought cheers - as it did when someone brought up the great number of prisoners who were executed in Rick Perry's Texas.

And these are the folks who want their country back - as well as ours. Unless you prefer Gothic tales in which strange things are ever bearing down on the plot, it is impossible to imagine what the country would be like in the hands of a government of Alley Oops. But can we safely dismiss the thought?