Nobody Wants To Attend Rick Perry's Dumb Extremist Rally

"God's favorite candidate" Rick Perry is apparently not "everyone else's favorite candidate" to throw a fringe right-wing Biblehumper block party, as it turns out: only 8,000 tragic souls have signed up for Perry's "The Response" rally on Saturday, which is mathematically many less than the 71,000 or so people that fit in the gigantic football stadium where he's holding it. Has America suddenly lost its appetite for asking God to solve its problems? Did an entire day of Rick Perry weeping and speaking in tongues while a cabal of hate-mongering evangelical pastors grown in jars under Pat Buchanan's bed fling spittle full of damnation and hellfire at everyone just sound like a little too much fun? 

The AP reports on this tragedy:

Openly and deeply religious, Texas Gov. Rick Perry organized what seemed like a slam-dunk event for a politician in a state where religion and politics walk hand in hand: He would fill Houston's Reliant Stadium with fellow believers in a seven-hour session of Christian atonement by some of the nation's most conservative preachers, exhorting believers to pray about the nation's moral decline.

Since he set up the event scheduled for Saturday, however, Perry has become the most talked-about almost-candidate in the 2012 Republican presidential field. But with only 8,000 RSVPs for a stadium that seats 71,500 people, virtually no politicians planning to attend, and a slate of organizers who hold out-of-mainstream views on religious freedom, gay rights and even Adolf Hitler, the event has become a potentially risky gamble if Perry is serious about running for the White House.

Oh come on, a gay-Hitler-themed religious dance is practically all anyone even does in Texas for fun these days. What gives, everybody? [ AP ]