'Put the White Back in the White House'?

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- That's what it said on a shirt some dude wore to a Romney rally recently.

Don't believe me? Google it. You'll find plenty of eyewitness accounts.

Wednesday morning on Facebook, Sarah Palin used the phrase "shuck and jive" to voice displeasure with President Obama's handling of the terrorist attack in Libya. See the urban dictionary

As I wrote this article Wednesday night, she had not removed the post and 6,640 people "liked" it. Here's one of the inane responses left in the comments section:

PRAY Patriots -- our prayers are working, Obama is losing his voice! The one true God works in mysterious ways!

And a comment that strikes fear in my heart as the father of a young girl and writer: your my hero an everyday inspiration to women and girls every where:)!!!!

Make that 6,716 likes.

Somewhere in between this nonsense, Ann Coulter referred to Obama as a "retard," prompting a rebuke from the Special Olympics. Wasn't it just a couple years ago when somebody from the organization forced an apology from the president for something he said?

Make that 6,989 likes.

Meantime, Donald Trump made an announcement on Wednesday. He'll donate $5 million to Obama's favorite charity if the president releases college applications and records and passport information.

Make that 7,005 likes.

This is what it has come to. It's a circus, this thing we loosely call politics.

I remember when the biggest controversy was Ronald Reagan co-opting Springsteen's Born in the USA in New Jersey, where he misrepresented it as a patriotic anthem.

Reagan was ignorant. That's forgivable.

The cat in the "Put the White Back in the White House" getup, Palin and Coulter express some flavor of willful ignorance. That's not all right.

As investors, we should worry. Because, at the end of the day, these spectacles decide elections. Undecided voters take in this mindless crap and pick a side.

Somebody posted an insightful comment to Palin's rant (make that 7,037 likes). It went something like this: What are you trying to do? Sabotage Mitt.

Palin can sway a few undecideds. Just like the Republican Senate candidate from Indiana who considers pregnancy after rape "something that God intended to happen."

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