A pregnant gospel choir teams up with a mentally handicapped piano player and a man dressed as a baby to inform us in song that “the least bad is the best,” and now my head has exploded.

UPDATE: Fishman deleted this video from his campaign’s YouTube account after an uncomfortable interview about it with La Nación. Nice try, bub. The Internet doesn’t allow take-backs.

Luis Fishman was a late-in-the-game replacement for his party’s nomination for the presidential elections. The prior nominee had to be replaced when he was sentenced to prison for taking bribes the last time he was president, meaning that, at least in this context, Fishman is indeed el menos malo.

Fishman is polling in the low single digits for the February voting, and somehow I don’t see ads like this whipping the electorate up into a frenzy.

There’s something about Costa Rica that makes otherwise intelligent, skeptical people start grinning and nodding like idiots, chanting “Pura Vida” like it actually means something. All of them parrot what are essentially Costa Rica talking points about the environment, peace, social justice, solidarity, etc.

It is, of course, a fantasy, but one that Americans absolutely adore. This is what vacations – and to a lesser extent parachute journalism as practiced by columnists – is all about. Find what you expect, and don’t poke it too hard.

A little video I shot about life in Costa Rica.