THE WINGERS' MANDELA

The Daily Caller wants you all to know that Nakoula Basseley Nakoula's body is in chains, but his cinematically incompetent mind is still free:

In his first interview since his supervised release from prison, the filmmaker behind "Innocence of Muslims" told The Daily Caller that he "has no regrets" and promises more films and books about Islam....

"The first reason I am writing this book is to tell the world we never forget our heroes and the second reason is to tell [everyone] that I’m not afraid," Nakoula writes in a foreword obtained exclusively by The Daily Caller.

... His book is dedicated to both the victims of Benghazi and of terrorism around the world.

"Ambassador Chris Stevens, Information Officer Sean Smith, former Navy SEAL Tyrone Woods, and Glen Doherty and to every son who has lost his father, every mother or father who has their son, every person all over the world [who] lost his life or [was] injured because of the terrorism culture," Nakoula writes in his foreword. "I would like to tell you you're not forgotten."

Nakoula, who had prior felony convictions on drug and bank fraud charges, was on probation when he made the trailer. Following the Benghazi debacle, the Obama administration claimed the film had incited the attack, and Nakoula was arrested and returned to prison for violating probation terms that prohibited him from using an alias (he had gone by "Sam Bacile" in making the film) or using the Internet without prior approval.

At Fox Nation right now, this story is the lead item.

When Nakoula first became a right-wing hero, I considered writing that he would probably do the convention film introducing the 2016 Republican presidential nominee. I thought better of it because he's such a godawful filmmaker -- many right-wingers have no taste, but even they can see that he makes Ed Wood look like Scorsese.

But books! Who knew he was writing one, and planning to write more?

Last year he was sentenced to a year in prison -- so he'll be out in a few months, I guess. Is he just writing on his own? If so, an opportunity is being missed -- a winger-friendly team (agent, editor, publisher, ghostwriter) ought to take him on and try to turn him into a bestselling author. Yeah, they'd have to damp his Muslim-hate down a tad, but probably not much -- remember, Pam Geller got a book deal from Mary Matalin's Simon & Schuster-affiliated right-wing imprint, and for that matter, Mark Fuhrman made the New York Times bestseller list a while back. And Michael Savage has hit #1 on the Times list.

If Nakoula can put a few sentences together without sounding completely nuts, I could easily imagine him becoming a regular guest commentator on Fox News and right-wing talk radio. He's certainly a much wept-over martyr in that crowd. Glenn Reynolds quotes an Instapundit commenter:

By the way -- Nakoula Nakoula is in hiding, through no fault of his own. George Zimmerman is in hiding, through no fault of his own (because the police questioned him, they let him go, and then the politicians decided that wasn't good enough). The Benghazi survivors are in hiding, through no fault of their own.

Is this the hallmark of the Obama era?

I don't know what to say in response to that.