To cleanse the palate, something tart from the Onion. Don’t think of it as altering the trajectory of time and space. Think of it as a multidimensional Etch-a-Sketch.

I’m giving you this clip plus the vid of Mitt getting pranked yesterday for April Fool’s in lieu of a post devoted to that dumb story about Ann Romney saying — oh, just go read it. Yeah, yeah, her choice of words was unfortunate, but that’s just another reason to like her: So Waltons-y are the Romneys that the double entendre was no doubt lost on her. It takes Beavises and Buttheads like you, me, and the media to mine the comedy gold inadvertently hidden therein. Besides, why should anyone on our side goof on Ann? She’s our secret weapon:

As Romney closes in on his party’s nomination, Obama campaign officials and strategists view Ann Romney as a wild card in the fall campaign — a skilled and articulate advocate whose full power has yet to be unleashed. If she’s armed with a passionate vision for a Romney White House, the opposition believes she could emerge as a compelling surrogate for her husband around the country…

Mitt Romney’s stilted personality, coupled with voter skepticism about his core beliefs, has proved to be a serious liability. Polls have shown that the more people get to know the former Massachusetts governor, the less they like him — the opposite dynamic of President Barack Obama. Even when Obama’s job approval numbers decline, people still say they like him personally.

Ann Romney, in contrast, exudes empathy and authenticity and offers a window into her husband’s character. Just as urgently, Republicans say that she’s a living testament to skeptical conservatives that Mitt Romney is one of them.

“She’s terribly important in that she is actually Mitt’s connection to the base,” said GOP strategist Alex Castellanos, who worked on Romney’s 2008 presidential effort. “His link to the base doesn’t come from ideology. It comes from family values channeled through Ann. She’s the authentic core of Romney’s conservative principles.”

Is that really why Ann is important, because she’s the “core of Romney’s conservative principles?” I think she’s useful to the campaign chiefly in the way she humanizes him. She seems warm and totally authentic. Whenever he starts to sound too much like the “Mittbot” caricature, programmed to tell you anything you need to hear to vote for him, you can come back to their affection for each other as proof that the “Mittbot” thing really must be a caricature after all. I think.

Speaking of dramatic technological solutions to campaign problems: Dude.