The Republican Plan to Nominate Hugo Chavez for President

For those readers who thought the Republicans were clueless, you're about to see the error of your ways.

They have a plan for winning the 2012 presidential election.

They're going to nominate Hugo Chavez!!

The first step in the insidious plot unfolded today when Iowa Republican Steve King went on C-Span to claim that Barack Obama and Hugo Chavez had similar economic policies.

"But something that comes to mind when I see this image, too, is here are two world leaders that have both, within the last month, nationalized huge private-sector companies," said King. "In the case of President Obama, General Motors and Chrysler, at least in effect if not in actuality, and moved it down that path, when he fired the CEO of General Motors, and when he ordered that Chrysler merge with Fiat."

One might think that King's purpose was to make President Obama less popular by claiming that he was like the demonized Venezuelan leader.

But NO! Actually, the idea is to make Chavez more popular.

Aware that socialism became much more popular after the Republicans spent six months calling Obama a socialist, the GOP leadership has secretly decided to pump up approval ratings for Hugo Chavez by claiming that Obama is "just another Chavez."

Top Republicans consultants know that the American public has developed a strong conviction that anything the Republicans criticize must be good. As a result, they calculate that a year of Republican attacks will boost Chavez' approval ratings up to 50% and give the Venezuelan president a better chance of beating Obama than any of the leading Republican contenders. Republican planners don't worry about the constitutional requirement that presidents be natural-born citizens of the United States. Given that their conviction that Obama became president despite being a citizen of Kenya, Republicans believe that Hugo Chavez certainly would be eligible to run.

And that Chavez could win.

So, the next time you see a Republican criticize Chavez, just remember that they want him to be your next president.