Attention, Reince Priebus: Send in the clown cars

By: Roger Simon, Politico.com
August 12, 2013 03:43 PM EDT

Before the clown car became a metaphor, there were real cars full of clowns.

Ridiculously small, they were driven into the circus ring and then an impossibly large number of clowns piled out of them.

I always thought the clown car involved a trapdoor in the circus floor and one in the bottom of the car, so that clowns could surreptitiously be fed into the car. But clown historians say there were no trapdoors. The clowns used their contortionist skills to pack themselves inside, and the average clown car could, depending on the regalia — like parasols, funny hats and musical instruments — disgorge between 14 and 21 clowns.

Today, a clown car is a political metaphor describing any group of politicians packed into in an unintentionally silly event. While an entire presidential campaign could be described as a clown car, the term more often it is used to describe smaller events like presidential primary debates.

(More here.)