Fellow Pensito Review editor Jon already chronicled the wildly discordant drop-in by Mitt Romney to a Martin Luther King Day parade staging area in Jacksonville. Jon posted the video which shows Mitt pointing at lots of black children but trying hard not to touch one, and most definitely not kissing any black babies even though he commented extensively on their attire — from about 12 to 14 inches back.

Last night I got to hear from a coworker what the formal Mitt rally was like. My pal, a 20-something Georgia-born Libertarian, has vowed to hear any candidate who actually makes a stop in Jacksonville. That lets out any Democrats, of course, but just this past weekend he took in both Mitt and Rudy. He had previously witnessed a rare Fred Thompson appearance, but obviously he won’t need to remember that one now.

When my attractive blond friend and his attractive blond wife arrived, they were grabbed by Mitt’s handlers. The goons asked if he and his wife wanted two seats together, and before he finished saying yes, they frog-marched the couple to the front of the crowd and deposited them directly in front of the podium. Before leaving, they slapped stickers on their chests that said, “Gators for Mitt” and shoved flags into their hands.

My friend, who forces me to watch episodes of Curb Your Enthusiasm, found all this entertaining in a Larry David kind of way. See, it’s like this. Yes, Florida is a huge college football state. But — and this is a very important “but” — not everyone roots for the same team. There are Gators and Seminoles and up this way, even quite a few Georgia Bulldog fans. Down in Buck’s neck of the woods, it’s orange and green Hurricane country. But in North Florida, even more polarizing than whether you’re a Democrat or Republican is whether you’re a Gator or a Seminole. A mixed marriage is not one where the couple differs racially, but one in which the husband or wife supports Florida State while the mate supports the University of Florida.

So just like Mitt’s yucking it up as if he was at a Saturday afternoon barbecue instead of getting ready to march in solemn remembrance of a fallen leader, this photo op fell flat. To the clueless Mitt and his handlers, it looked perfect. To those in the crowd, it looked like an idiot was cavorting in their midst.

My friend, an ardent Bulldog fan, wore the Gator sticker and waved the flag. Later that night, there he was, with his wife, out front on CNN, ABC, and all the local stations, just like Mitt’s crew intended. But I’m pretty sure the thoughts in his head were not what Mitt was going for: “What a putz. My God, what a putz.”