Dudes.

Can I be a scold to y’all for a sec?

We really ought to take one look at this and move on. It’s got nothing to do with the job Rob Ford’s doing as a mayor as apt a symbol as it might be. I squirm looking at it. Just one of the many pitfalls awaiting those who lead life in the public eye.

In fact, every time something like this happens, something face palming outside his job description, we should just shrug and move on. Nothing to see here. Seriously. Nothing to see here.

Take a look at the longer clip, the mayor’s reaction to his tumble.

Mayor Rob Ford slips during pickup football game in Toronto

Fuck. I want to hug the guy. This is Rob Ford at his most goofily endearing. This is what people who love him, love him for. At least, partially. The visceral, little guy part of his appeal.

I mean who here amongst us hasn’t embarrassed ourselves while undertaking some feat of athleticism? It comes with the territory. Perhaps one of my most vivid memories about the 1972 Canada-Russia hockey series, rivalling even the winning goal in the final game by… I forget the guy’s name at the moment… was the slip and fall by Phil Esposito during the player introductions in game five, the first one in Moscow. He got up onto his skates, took a deep bow, holding the rose he’d been given.

We’re all human. We all fall on our asses sometimes. The key, to paraphrase the cliché, is getting back up and the style in which we do so.

On a political level, I’m not sure there’s been one moment of agreement I’ve had with Rob Ford during his entire time as a municipal politician. He represents almost everything I loathe in far right, conservative thought or, lack thereof. It is my humble opinion he has no grasp of the complexity of the job it was he was elected to do.

That said, my hat’s off to him, dedicating twelve years of his life to public service. I’m not Jimmy Stewart enough to call it purely a selfless act. Sure, there are perks that come with the territory but the guy could’ve just stayed wrapped up away in his well-to-do cocoon, cursing all the crooked politicians with their hands in his pocket – OK, he’s done some of that, and perhaps we all would’ve been better off if he’d stayed strictly a private citizen.

(See? It’s difficult for me to dole out a compliment to Rob Ford.)

For good or ill, the man’s placed himself out there, stepped fully into the public eye. Let’s laugh at him, berate him, mock him for the policies he pursues, the nonsensical political things he utters, the spats he engages in with his media BFFs (today’s Toronto Sun piece, Mayor Rob Ford targets the messenger at his libel trial is a very funny read) instead of the human missteps he takes. That reflects poorly on us not him.

And from a purely cynical political perspective, it only helps his cause. He trips and falls in a manner that isn’t all that unusual for pro quarterbacks to do after taking a snap, and we laugh heartily, reinforcing the image of being elitist snobs, taking every opportunity to make fun of the mayor and buffing up his little guy sheen.

When that happens, the joke’s on us, folks.

— chidingly submitted by Cityslikr