Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus said something that many would interpret as sort of insane on television yesterday, comparing President Obama to the Italian cruise ship captain Francesco Schettino, who ran away like a little pussy while all those people on his boat were dying.

Francesco Schettino, the Italian cruise ship captain who caroused with his passengers before steering his ship dangerously close to shore and then fleeing immediately when it ran aground and capsized, leaving 11 (at last count) to die and thousands to flail in terror, sounds like a real go-getter. Here is a tape of an Italian Coast Guard official ordering Schettino, who was speaking by phone from a lifeboat, to get back aboard and help evacuate the women and children who were still on his boat. He said no.