Let me be clear about this just in case my clever headline makes no sense: I think the Yahoo board punted by hiring Scott Thompson, who is either a stooge for Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang or a convenient placeholder until the company can be sold.

I have nothing against Thompson, who did an able, if very vanilla, job at PayPal, but there is nothing — nothing — that distinguishes him as a new media executive. With a wildly dysfunctional outfit like Yahoo, he’ll be in over his head from the first day. I hope for his sake there’s a golden parachute rip cord available for pulling.

His best hope — and it isn’t much of a hope — is that Jerry Yang has come to his senses and at least gives Thompson good orders to follow.

You can’t blame Thompson for wanting to take the top job at, as he calls it, an iconic company. Nor can you blame him for thinking he can turn Yahoo around. But I can blame the Yahoo board all day and night for being a roomful of bozos.

Shareholders should throw out the entire Yahoo board.