Halloween is just around the corner but many among us have been up to the same old tricks all year long, particularly in terms of politics.

This year’s highly anticipated midterm elections have brought out all sorts of antics displayed by politicians and elected officials who no longer bother to disguise themselves in costumes bearing good tidings.

By now, many of you are familiar with Herschel Junior Walker, who, seemingly out of nowhere, decided to seek-and-win the Republican nomination for the 2022 United States Senate election in Georgia. Before he resurfaced as a politician, the former NFL running back and Heisman Trophy winner was pretty much considered a has-been by most standards.

Herschel who?

Yet, even after Mr. Walker opened his mouth, many of his Republican backers continued to lavish his celebrity status stoked with good, old-fashioned Georgia conservatism.

They ignored Mr. Walker’s past, which included violence against women and being a deadbeat father. They turned the other cheek when he questioned the theory of evolution by saying, “If man descended from apes, why are there still apes?”

What?!!

Mr. Walker also has questioned President Biden’s climate change policies, reports the Washington Post.

“Don’t we have enough trees around here?” Sounding eerily close to former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin’s opine about Russia, Mr. Walker then “explained” how Georgia’s “good air decides to float over” to China, replacing China’s “bad air,” which goes back to Georgia, where “we got to clean that back up.”

Where is Tina Fey when we need her to jerk this man (and country) back to its senses?

A more recent revelation regarding Mr. Walker’s “character” involves a woman who says he paid for her abortion in 2009. Nothing revolutionary about that statement except that Mr. Walker has made it clear during his campaign against Sen. Ralph Warnock (D- Georgia) that he wants to completely ban abortion, which he compares to murder. According to the Daily Beast, he believes there should be no exceptions, even for rape, incest or the life of the mother.

What a Neanderthal.

Mr. Walker, of course, swiftly denied the accusation, as did, perhaps, many of his supporters, who likely chalked up the finger pointing to dirty politics getting dirtier as Nov. 8 draws near.

“Confronted on Sunday with receipts that appear to prove he paid for the abortion of a woman he once dated, staunch anti-abortionist Herschel Walker – Georgia’s Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate – had a ready response: “It’s a lie,” reports the Guardian, which notes that Mr. Walker recently gave that response to NBC News.

No doubt many Republicans are worried that they may have gone too far in choosing a political novice who looks good on paper but, when you peel back the layers, all you’re left with is dead wood.

Sigh.

For a while, Mr. Walker’s tightening race against Sen. Warnock was reassuring to his Republican backers who applauded themselves for picking a celebrity with appeal to the mostly white males who dominate the Republican party in Georgia, and possibly Black men who live and die for football, and for Latino males who admire Donald Trump’s “machismo” and would probably show the same admiration for a Heisman Trophy winner.

Alas, Mr. Walker’s blundering missteps surrounding the ex-girlfriend’s abortion seem to have misfired.

Varying polls once showed Mr. Walker within 2 or 3 percentage points either ahead or behind Sen. Warnock. An Oct. 12 Quinnipiac University poll shows incumbent Sen. Warnock leading Mr. Walker 52-45 percent among likely voters in Georgia.

Mr. Walker’s staunch supporters, including U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell, now wonder what went wrong.

Will the bewitching hours between now and 19 days resurrect Herschel’s image?

We pray not.

Congratulations to the wonderfully talented Missy Elliott for having a street named after her this week in her hometown of Portsmouth.

Flip it, reverse it, work it!

And Happy Birthday to Mrs. Rose Ann Perry Paker of Richmond, born Oct. 16, 1922, who celebrated her 100th birthday on Oct. 15 surrounded by six genera- tions of children, grandchildren, great grandchildren and more!