Today's Happy Hopping Moron: Joe Walsh

It's one thing to slander your average person for alleged superficiality that they don't exhibit. It's another thing entirely to inaccurately deride a combat veteran that way, when simply being a combat veteran should mean we at least give them the benefit of the doubt for having a serious bone or two in their bodies (assuming their bones weren't all blown out by a grenade).

But that didn't stop Republican Representative Joe Walsh from saying of his combat veteran opponent -- who has already debated him twice and has three more debates scheduled with him -- that, "It has become abundantly clear that at this point the only debate Ms. Duckworth is actually interested in having is which outfit she’ll be wearing for her big speech."

So for making such an obviously stupid, degrading slander about one of America's finest, a combat veteran who has demonstrated a clear capacity for serious issues, Joe Walsh is today's Happy Hopping Moron.

Today's Happy Hopping Moron: Niall Ferguson

He's got a long track records of spouting nonsense to his credit. He's just come from putting out a Newsweek cover story that's deservedly drawing derision for multiple obvious errors. But what clinched the spot of Today's Happy Hopping Moron for Niall Ferguson was an error that could have been forgiven if it had been committed by someone who has never claimed to have any expertise related to government or the economy. From a complete and utter layman it could have been excused. But a commentator and professor who would claim economic history among his specialties, mistaking the employment bump from the Census for an impact of the Stimulus (as he did on Bloomberg TV) tops the cake. Even despite his specialty, maybe -- just maybe -- we could have overlooked a really, really mindbogglingly stupid mistake like that if he hadn't been churning out so many errors in such public forums of late. But given that track record, congratulations to Niall for fully earning the title of Today's Happy Hopping Moron.

The identity of the Happy Hopping Moron on the right has been obscured because even he was embarrassed to be depicted next to Niall Ferguson

Today's Happy Hopping Moron: Todd Akin

Missouri Tea Party Republican Todd Akin claims he can tell whether a rape was a "legitimate rape" based on some magical, mystical -- and unspecified -- means by which he figures a woman's body will reject the rapist's sperm if it was really a rape.

Akin says, "If it's a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down."

Akin should leave the comments on reproductive biology to those who actually have a grasp on the subject.

The identity of the Happy Hopping Moron on the right has been obscured because even he was embarrassed to be depicted next to Todd Akin

 I didn't realize it was Happy Hopping Moron Day.