And on the eighth day, God created the clueless politician.
In a speech on Monday that aspired to the Pat Robertson school of rhetoric, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin made two stunning declarations. The recent hurricanes, he intoned, must be God's payback for the U.S. "being in Iraq under false pretenses" and for the behavior of some black Americans. He went on to reassure the crowd that New Orleans "will be a majority African-American city. It's the way God wants it to be. ... This city will be chocolate at the end of the day."
And the levees broke, and the flood waters of response washed over Ray Nagin. Here at the Buzz, searches on "new orleans mayor" climbed a staggering 990%, and "ray nagin" shot upward 836%. Queries on "chocolate city" and "new orleans chocolate city" both rose from zero into the thousands. It seemed the mayor had succeeded in offending pretty much everyone.
Old Ray has since backpedaled furiously, but it remains to be seen if he can weather this storm. There have been many humorous responses to his gaffes, but the last word has to go to Senator Joe Lieberman, who soothed democratically, "There is dark chocolate and there is white chocolate." And for that, we are grateful.