CNN has an absolutely bizarre interview up with Mark Muller, the Missouri truck dealer offering a free voucher for an AK-47 with every vehicle purchase. The Max Motors dealership's motto: "God, Guns, Guts, and American Pick-Up Trucks."
Two things struck me about the video:
1. How poorly the (unidentified) CNN anchor performed, stammering and repeating herself and "you know"ing and coming across as wildly condescending and yet weirdly apologetic in posing her questions and completely unable to cope with Muller's responses. (Perhaps she assumed he would simply throw up his hands at her first criticism and offer a mea culpa for his gun-loving ways?)
2. How strangely reasonable Muller made his promotion seem--as though handing out free assault weapons like toaster ovens was the only responsible course of action, not only from a marketing standopint but also a community-service one.
Indeed, while I disagreed with pretty much all of his arguments, I thought Muller was handily carrying the day--right up until he started talking about how God wants Americans to arm up and defend themselves. When jokingly asked by the CNN gal if they were going to wade into the issue of would Jesus carry a gun, Muller patiently explained that they didn't have guns in Jesus's time, then offered: "But I do believe he'd carry a sword if he needed it," before quickly adding, "But he was so powerful he didn't need any weapon!" (Ah, so that was what that whole turn-the-other-cheek and blessed-are-the-meek business was about. Glad we cleared that up.)
Our CNN anchor's closing response: "That is true!"
As disturbing as the entire exchange was, it's not hard to figure out who emerged the winner. Not only is Muller winning a truckload of free publicity, I wouldn't be surprised one day soon to find him on the GOP speaking circuit--or maybe running for office on a ticket--with Joe the Plumber.
Heck, he's already got sharper interview skills than Sarah Palin.
--Michelle Cottle