By Danielle Emerson
Staff Writer
Posted: September 18, 2015 3:06 PM

Two Republican campaign officials are making headlines for themselves, and by extension, their respective GOP presidential candidates, after one tweeted Friday morning the other had punched him in the face at a bar on Mackinac Island prior to the Republican conference officially getting underway.

To be sure, there ought to be some good news to come out of the conference, namely as it relates to the numerous GOP presidential candidates that have decided to attend. Arguably few, however, could have seen a bar brawl as the first headline off the island.

John Yob, who is working for U.S. Sen. Rand Paul from Kentucky, was allegedly punched by Rich Beeson, the deputy campaign manager for Florida U.S. Marco Rubio’s campaign. A video has popped up on the website of the National Journal (keep an eye in the left corner) of the apparent incident that occurred just after midnight, Friday, at Horn’s bar (the video is also on YouTube).

Mr. Yob, on his Twitter, has called for Mr. Rubio to fire Mr. Beeson immediately after the spat, which has garnered national headlines.

But perhaps the best responses have come on social media, most poking fun at the ordeal, and some mocking the media headlines that suggest it was “bar brawl” or even a “fight,” when, as the video shows, it looks more like a quick sucker punch.

Kelly Rossman-McKinney of the Truscott-Rossman firm, tweeted, “Surely this is not the first time someone has wanted to land a punch somewhere in the vicinity of John Yob’s mouth.”

And Sam Inglot, spokesperson for Progress Michigan, tweeted a meme of what appears to be two grown men at a soccer match being separated by referee during a dispute, the ref who casually attempts to push one man away from the fight and in turn dramatizes that he had been hit in the throat. “Here’s how it went down on the island,” he says.

About an hour later, Inglot also says, “If that was a ‘punch’ that Yob took, then my cat ‘punches’ me every day when we wrestle.”

Former Republican Rep. Chris Ward, now an analyst for the Oakland County Board of Commissioners, posted on his Facebook, “The last time someone got punched at Horns during a GOP Conference, they became Senate Majority Leader and a member of Congress. Looking for big things from John Yob.”

Indeed, as the Detroit Free Press reports, in 2003, at the Detroit Regional Chamber’s annual policy conference on Mackinac, now-U.S. Rep. Mike Bishop (then a state senator), was punched as he attempted to board a carriage near Horn’s Bar.

Here’s to Day One on the island.