Light Rays On Saturdays

Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry did the only thing he could do to overcome his worst-yet debate embarrassment. He joined in the fun. 

Perry’s appearance on The David Letterman Show, where he narrated a self-deprecating Top Ten list, was a very smart move. He also received a helping hand from health and science influencers, like the New York Times health columnist Tara Parker Pope, who quickly generated an expert analysis recounting other famous brain freezes and noting that “countless memory lapses like these happen to the rest of us every day.”

“When all goes well, the medial temporal lobe acts like a library’s card catalog system, pointing to the locations in the brain where different parts of the memory are stored and allowing the memory to be recalled. But in Mr. Perry’s case, it appears that something went wrong, and the search turned up the wrong card or looked in the wrong place or was interrupted,” Pope explained in her immensely popular style.

Now if she can just explain why Perry seems to walk and gesture in unusual ways.

The standards for what citizens expect from those who seek to serve as President of the United States have been slowly decomposing for decades now. We’ve come a long way since flawed candidates, like Gary Hart, would either immediately quit in shame or face automatic expulsion over character issues.

Whether or not you like Perry’s politics, he converted a potentially devastating flub into positive, empathetic exposure.  An upcoming $1 million national ad buy, if it’s distinctive, could reinforce his staying power.

Following the student riot in support of former Penn State football coach Joe Paterno, my editor at The Public Relations Strategist, forwarded an interesting piece in Psychology Today on “Sports Fan Myopia.” 

In the “Science of Small Talk” blog, Sam Simmons discussed the social behavior that fueled the initial angry reaction of students to Paterno's firing, arguing that it is natural for diehard fans to “warp the picture we see to fit the one we keep in our hearts.”

“Who among us hasn't, at one point or another, overlooked or rationalized immorality in the name of holding firm to sports allegiance?,” wrote Simmons, without in any way condoning what happened at Penn State.

Going forward, it will be interesting to see whether the Unversity can effectively navigate this phenomenon in a way that separates the school's lucrative football program from the scandal.

Meanwhile, expect to see and hear more from Mike Madden, the plain-spoken sports columnist for the Beaver County (PA) Times, who wrote a prescient April column that predicted the Penn State mess.

Madden made the rounds this past week on the major sports radio shows in Boston, which have provided around-the-clock analysis explaining and dissecting the scandal.

Appearing on The Dennis & Callahan Show, he said the next shoe to drop could be confirmation of a rumor that Sandusky ran a child prostitution ring catering to wealthy, perverted donors. If you want to see an intense story go nuclear, that would pretty much be the trigger.

By the way... Guess who benefited the most from the sordid Sandusky saga? Herm Cain. The sexual harassment allegations against him didn’t just get pushed to the backburner; they fell down into the crack between the stove and the counter. For now.