Sometimes an idea can be a "near miss," which is to say that it was close to being a good idea but crossed the line into a farce.

Example: if you told me that someone hired Joe the Plumber to travel around the country and do a series of 2-minute vignettes with working class families discussing taxes, the economy, life in small towns, etc, I'd say that's sounds like a pretty cool idea and a decent way of generating some PR for your organization.

If, on the other hand, you told me someone was sending Joe the Plumber into a war zone in the Middle East to report on a conflict that he appears to have no particular qualifications or expertise to cover, with the intent of letting Israel's  "'Average Joes' share their story," I'd say that sounds like one of the dumbest ideas I've ever heard.