"Bueller? Bueller?"

Turns out you can make this stuff up, but you don't always have to.

My signif and I were watching the last Democratic New Hampshire debate thinking Governor Bill Richardson would make an excellent Saturday Night Live parody. He was so excluded from any significant conversation that we suspected he must be zoning out regularly. We joked that his answers hinted at a slight disconnect - that perhaps there was so much time between his shots at weighing in that he wasn't really hearing the questions. Here's how we acted it out in my living room:

Charles Gibson: "Governor Richardson, do you agree?"

Governor Richardson: "I'm the ony one who's run a state. I've balanced the budget 5 times. I've...

I'm sorry. What was the question?"

Then today - just now - my signif forwards me this from a Washington Post write about Richardson's trying to figure out whom to endorse:

"I had just been asked a question -- I don't remember which one -- and Obama was sitting right next to me. Then the moderator went across the room, I think to Chris Dodd, so I thought I was home free for a while. I wasn't going to listen to the next question. I was about to say something to Obama when the moderator turned to me and said, 'So, Gov. Richardson, what do you think of that?' But I wasn't paying any attention! I was about to say, 'Could you repeat the question? I wasn't listening.' But I wasn't about to say I wasn't listening. I looked at Obama. I was just horrified. And Obama whispered, 'Katrina. Katrina.' The question was on Katrina! So I said, 'On Katrina, my policy . . .' Obama could have just thrown me under the bus. So I said, 'Obama, that was good of you to do that."'

Dodd dropped out before New Hampshire so this probably wasn't the same debate.

But it's just too perfect nonetheless.