I admit it. I'm scared.

I was going to compile a list of everything horrifying about Governor Rick Perry -- but frankly, you people know all or most of that stuff already. Of all the wackos running for the GOP nomination, he may be the most dangerous.



For years, the folks at Corrente have been making fun of those who advocate support for Obama because the tea-stained alternative is too unnerving. I can see the point. Obama has proven to be an even worse president than his opponents predicted. We simply cannot reward so many broken promises with re-election...



...can we?



Let's try a thought experiment: Let us suppose that the 2012 Republican nominee is a handsome, intelligent, telegenic fellow named Dick Gently. Everybody likes him. His politics differ from yours, perhaps, but nothing about him seems particularly threatening. He seems a shoo-in.



But: You shared a college dorm room with Mr. Gently. And at that time, he let you know that his great secret ambition was to become president so he could launch a thermonuclear war shortly after taking the oath. Each night, Dick would lull himself to sleep by muttering the words: "Kill! Kill! Kill for the love of Kali! All life must end! All life must end!"



Under those circumstances, you would tell your friends to vote for Obama, would you not? Even if you hate Obama -- and the man has given me little reason to like him -- you would understand that you have no option. Rotten as he is, Obama would be the only thing standing between the psychotic Mr. Gently and The Button.



So don't tell me that there are no circumstances under which you vote for Obama in 2012. There are. Admit it.



"Yes," I hear you saying. "But Rick Perry and Michele Bachmann are not the same thing as your hypothetical Mr. Gently..."



And that's our question for the day. Just how bad does the Republican candidate have to be before you decide to hold your nose and vote for the guy who brought disgrace to the Democratic party?



Where would you place the cut-off? If Dick Gently is a 10 on the Awfulness Scale, where would you place Bachmann or Perry? And what score does someone have to achieve on the Awfulness Scale to make a vote for Obama conceivable to you?



As I've said previously, John McCain did not strike me as so very awful. He is just another politician who adheres to policies I dislike. That's fine. I've seen plenty of those.



McCain wasn't, and isn't, nuts.



But Perry -- oh yeah. The guy is a toon. A total toon. A frightening toon. He makes Dubya seem sane.



Romney, like McCain, does not give off much of a nutball vibe. The guy is impossible to like, no doubt about it. He'd be a bad president. But he definitely ranks low enough on the Awfulness Scale to make it possible for me to advocate lodging a protest vote against Obama, or at least sitting out the election.



Many of you cannot imagine how anyone could possibly be worse than Obama. Well, I've made this historical comparison before, but let's repeat it: In 1932, everyone on the German left despised Chancellor Heinrich Brüning, an arch-reactionary who screwed up the economy something fierce. Worse than that guy seemed unimaginable.



A year later, guess what happened?