Jon Stewart to BillO: 'How is this a center-right country?'
By David Neiwert Friday Nov 14, 2008 11:00am
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Papa Bear was on The Daily Show last night, and it made for some rich viewing:
Stewart: I keep watching on your network, everyone is saying, Look, this is a center-right country, and he'd better govern that way.
And uh -- How is this a center-right country? Because it seems to me that it is not.
O'Reilly: Look, the problem is you never leave New York City. OK? That's No. 1.
Stewart: I'm a standup comic.
O'Reilly: Yeah, but if you're Jon Stewart, and you go to Alabama you're going to get killed. You can't go where these center-right people are. Because they'll stone you to death.
Hmmm. What passes for the "center right" part of the country for most of us -- say, suburban Milwaukee or rural Montana -- would be unlikely to react violently to a Jon Stewart. They might ignore him or think him rude, but most likely it would be civil and polite.
In fact, I happened to be in Wasilla, Alaska -- Sarah Palin's hometown -- when a crew from The Daily Show was there filming a segment on the town. No one was about to hurl stones at them. In fact, most of them seemed pretty eager to belly up to the table with Jason Jones inside the Mug Shot Saloon to be interviewed on national TV.
Now, I'm sure there are some quarters of the country where a city guy like Stewart might be wise to go well-armed and guarded -- probably some of them in places like Alabama. But to nearly everyone else in the country, these are the far right corners of the nation.
And it's pretty telling that O'Reilly thinks that's the center.
Later on, O'Reilly tells Stewart:
You should get out and meet some of the folks. They're not bad people.
That's true, except for that part about wanting to kill you.
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Have to say I am hard pressed to think of any sizable area of the country where John Stewart is likely to get stoned (with rocks anyway). I spent the first 35 years in Oklahoma which is ,especially in the eastern hill country where I grew up, pretty damned redneck ("Okie from Muskogee" anyone?) and currently batshit crazy conservative (think Senators Inhoffe and Coburn). Even there, except for a few isolated pockets, they would react pretty much the way they did in Wasilla. Methinks Billo is projecting like mad here.
I think Stewart made the "give O'Reilly enough rope, he'll hang himself" ploy. Man that is a lot of rope to get around BOR's big head.
My question is, why did he bother to come on? Nobody watching wants to buy his book.
See the recent poll that showed the following:
53% of Americans want the government to include worker & consumer protections in trade deals. Only 34% are in favor of totally free trade.
63% want social security to be reformed & protected as is. 35% want private accounts.
58% want universal health care and public plans. 38% want tax credits like McCain proposed.
Among Americans' top government priorities:
-Affordable health care for all
-Repeal the Bush tax cuts for those earning over $250k
-End the Iraq occupation
-Repeal tax cuts for corporations who send jobs overseas
-Alternative renewable energy sources
-Invest in infrastructure rebuilding
This looks very much like a CENTER-LEFT country to me.
Bill don't NEED no stinking Facts...m'kay?
Was blue ALL over the country. Not too much red. Of course BillO is wrong. As usual.
Jon did a greeat job of making BillO look like the fool he is.
n/t
Fox News= Alabama(Cracker)Public Broadcasting.
Good Luck with that, Bill.
(Sigh) Why does it take a comedian to hand Billo his ass? Can't ANY politicians or journalists do so? What the hell are they all so scared of?
it is hard to watch that 20th century skid-mark try to play with Jon and attempt to appeal to a demographic that he is HOPELESSLY out-of-touch with on so many levels.
his in-house body language expert should tell the guy that when he tosses out that snarky grin, it does not look like he's amused.
he looks like Bob Dole or McCain when they would force happy on us.
so creepy!
That's Rush's new word for Obama.
I think we should reverse it and use it on all of the right wingers.
O'Reilly and his nasty, full of shit arrogance poisoned Stewart's show. It was almost like watching the fucking "factor".
Disgusting.
I wish Billo the Ass Clown could just once not mention how tall he is , I'm not impressed . Like the old blues song says he's just tall that's all , and I mean all.
So Bill pulls more "facts" from his favorite source. Glad I wasn't around to see him extracting them.
I reject that statement about Jon Stewart getting killed in Alabama. Why it is true that it's a very red state, it's not all bad and not all red. Birmingham has a bad self image (righfully so) due to the troubles in the 60's, but is working hard to be more progressive and would surprise a lot of you like it does to many people everyday. I wish more people would visit and experience it because it's a great place and in many cases very liberal.
Like many other places on the east coast, west coast and flyover you will find large pockets of liberal and conservative. I don't live in Birmingham anymore, but would move back in a second, and I know Jon Stewart could sell out a 20,000 seat venue in no time there and wouldn't have to worry about being hurt. Sorry for the commercial for Alabama, but I'm sick of everyone thinking we're automatically bending over for the conservative religious nuts out there.
It's Bill O just making his usual sweeping statements without a single thing to back them up.
.... flies in the face of O'Reilly's usual bickering that it is the left who is violent.
I wonder how he'd respond to that observation.
I've traveled to and through 47 states, mostly by motorcycle, and have never been hassled. If you act the professional victim, you'll be one. Most criminals pick out their targets observing their body language. If you act scared, you'll be scared. And I think Bildo is really afraid of Andrea Mackris.
including Birmingham, Selma and Foley. Nice friendly people and seemingly rather tolerant, at least in public.
I doubt seriously that Stewart would be "stoned" in any of these places, though he might not be recognized either.
Alabama is a red state but there is hope...
www.thicketmag.com
We aren't laughing with you, we're laughing at you.
My home state is always the target of derision by a lot of people, but I know that the people I grew up with are better than most people say. Case in point:
http://stevensonblog.tuscaloosanews.com/defau...
I know that Alabama voted statewide for McCain/Palin, but the fact that Tuscaloosa voted for Obama did my heart good. By the way, my home county of Sumter also carried Obama. Never underestimate the potential for change in any state, even my beloved Alabama.
...McCain would have been elected.
So much for that argument
BillOdipshit!by touting them to be murderous and intolerant.
Maybe BillO is the one who should get out more?
Interesting words he used when he talked about what the people of Alabama would do to Jon. I would think a lot of people in that state would be pissed as hell at BillO for describing them that way.
Sad to see and hear Jon Stewart label the Iraq War a "mistake." It was nothing of the sort. It was an illegal and immoral invasion and occupation of a foreign country. A war of agression by the US. I'm tired of people calling it a strategic error. People should be going to jail for this "mistake"!!!
In my opinion the invasion of Iraq was a crime.
Q: How is this a center-right country?
A: If you're Jon Stewart, and you go to Alabama you're going to get killed.
BillO's strategy when faced with an argument he can't defend is to avoid an answer and turn the tables on Stewart. Throw in a little violence or instill a little fear along the way and you have standard issue GOP debate tactics.
Has anyone threatened to kill conservatives with the casualness that that they do with liberals? How do you think Bill or Rush would react if anyone on record would say that conservatives will be stoned to death in a blue state like California?
I don't want to kill Billo or Rush, I want to torture them for all eternity with a permanent progressive majority.
Seems to me someone close to the center, even if they are "center right" as the douchbag talking heads would have us believe, would not want to kill someone just because they are
A) Liberal
B) a New Yorker
C) Jewish
D) Jon Stewart
E) pretty smart
or any other complaint Dild O'Reilly would have. Wanting to kill any of those kinds of people would be a sign you are radical right, IMO.
Am I wrong?
In Billo's world the center begins somewhere around Dr. Mengele.
abortion rights have held steady for 35 years, socially we are center left.
BillO should take another look at the country. Especially in regards to how the military voted. Many military bases voted heavily in favor of Obama this time around. Vetvoice's Brandon Friedman has a good run down for several Army and Marine Corps bases. Two of the bases I have listed from Friedman's post:
Election Data: Military Communities Shifted Democratic in 2008
"For the past week, people have been coming to me asking if I had any data on the 2008 military vote. The questions were typical: Did the myth of overwhelming military support for Republicans bear out? Did Obama change that? Just who, exactly, do military communities support? And to what extent?
Unfortunately, I hadn't really come up with much until today. But now, using general election data provided by the New York Times, I was able to determine that the military communities most affected by the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan shifted significantly toward Barack Obama and the Democratic Party in 2008 when compared to the numbers from 2004."
Military Base: Camp Pendleton
Service: Marine Corps
County: San Diego
State: California
Major Combat Unit: 1st Marine Division
Shift from 2004: 10-20%
Shift in Favor of: Democrats/Obama
Elected: Barack Obama
Military Base: Camp LeJeune
Service: Marine Corps
County: Onslow
State: North Carolina
Major Combat Unit: 2nd Marine Division
Shift from 2004: 10-20%
Shift in Favor of: Democrats/Obama
Elected: John McCain
http://vetvoice.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=2189
... is based on wishful thinking.
'Fiscally conservative'
The last one who was fiscally responsible in the last 3 decades was Bill Clinton
'Strong on defense'
Just need to see what happened on 9/11 after Clinton warned Bush of a possible attack.
'Trickle down unfettered free capitalism'
Just look to see where that got us. The trickling stopped at the CEO level.
...where everybody below the top tier is a pee-on.
I don't think Bill will get a job as a public relations man for conservatives any time soon. He portrays them as people who attack and want to kill anyone who does not think as they do. I doubt that they want that sort of reputation.
What a bloviating bigmouth.
Hey Billo: How about you go hide behind your security detail some more, you poisonous sack of blowfish shit.
That's what I love about C&L comment threads- always a new epithet to be found...
I don't even know what it means, other than it just sounds so crassly insulting. I do have to give credit to another poster: he/she used the word a couple of days ago in another thread and I just lol'd at the time, with basically the same reaction as yours.
Am I the only one here who thinks that all the stoning and killing talk was an attempt at humor?
But it wasn't funny. We aren't morons.
Besides, we just don't like Billo. He could buy us all ice cream and it would be, in the end, ice cream Billo bought us, which by its very nature would suck.
Your subject header:
I do sort of miss the old comments section. Scrolling up and down to see how this or that conversation is developing is sort of a pain. However, I don't think the old site is coming back.
I agree it wasn't funny. But it was still a joke.
Nothing to get all outraged about.
And I understand the old site isnt coming back:P
But I was hoping maybe for an option to make the comments look like the old ones...
Numbered and all. These are a pain in the ass.
And I understand the old site isnt coming back:P
Touche'!
(hmmm. Numbers would help. Containing the conversations isn't a bad idea, I suppose, it's just trying to find them that can be a pain. BTW, SMon/JohnA I am not trying to bitch and moan like an ingrate. C&L is great, free (beyond the occasional donation), and fair to the posters (imho). Just trying to work out my relationship with the new design)
Billo:
Nothing to get outraged about, sure, but here's to blowing off steam.
Peace!
--
This is a den of Liberals...
We like rearranging the furniture every so often..
I think if you contrast sites like This and other left wing sites...
Verses the right wing sites.. like Drudge, Freeperland, etc.. which still are the same as they were in 1500bc..
The psychological structure of each group is very apparent..
The new site works.. it is much better overall ..
Although for those with older systems there should be a less demanding version available.. and perhaps there should be a choice as to how the conversation lays out..
I recommend if you are having problems with your computer overall that you download CCleaner and do a clean up of your system, and registry..
Defrag once in a blue moon too..
Perhaps a spybot scan or two..
Nah, it isn't a performance issue at all. Remember, the old site also had AJAX commenting, albeit without the automatic notices of replies.
I just find the entire layout impractical and frankly, uglier than the old one.
Drudge and freerepublic have horrible design. Can't they get decent web developers?
Probably hard to find competent people over there:P
Bill-0 got smudged bad..
He is such a dumbass...
Seriously BILL, .. Take a big deep inhale of the Nag Champa scented Hash clouds..
The America that you thought existed, is going ... RENEGADE!
"The America that you thought existed, is going ... RENEGADE!"
And Renaissance too
&
Hallelujah..
(our kids might have a future worth being in debt for!)
This was really bizarre, when you think about it. A fake news show has a guest from a 'real news' network who claims to know the truth about everything but who in fact obviously does nothing but spew his own self-delusion. The host of the fake news show tries in vain to point out the truth about the world over the incessant noise of the representative from the 'real' news network.
There is so much here that is inverted and backwards that it bordered on the surrealistic.
... are you calling a 'real' news network? They are both comical. one intentional, the other not.
That's what scare quotes are for.
hahah "That's not a panda!?"
haha That to me just gave me a giggle punch. Seriously - how well does that sum up everything that Bill O'Reilly is.
I know why you would like to think so, and well, I know I would too.
But isn't it more likely to assume he just didn't look at it very well? In the video, from behind, I though it was a panda as well. If a little pale one.
And if I'm not mistaken, baby pandas are white? It's far from a defining gaffe.
He seemed rather disturbed by the gesture. As for calling it a panda, there's got to be a black/white issue in there somewhere.
Well, that was the biggest catch of all. I don't believe someone don't know a teddy bear . it is global knowledge.. if he can't recognize a famous teddy bear, how is he advising Jon Stewart to go out there and see "reality".
?
...His powers of fantasy are grand...
Never underestimate the power of a sexually depraved mind..
Just for a refresher..
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/1013043m...
Well, one time he went to Harlem, and it didn't go too well.
I know that's in New York, just a reminder of what happens when he travels.
He is such a brave man...
"Now git him sum mofukin ICE TEA!"
Hell, that remark of O'Reilly is much worse than Obama's "cling-to" remark. Talk about painting folks with a broad brush! Consequences for Bill? None likely.
Well, he may have accurately portrayed his and Rush's core audience. the rest of America, including deep red America, not so much.
....but in that interview it seemed that Stewart let him talk too long and too much. Big ugly Bill did most of the talking, although Stewart bitch slapped him a few times.
Jon was just giving him all the opportunity he could so that Bill could prove how much of an idiot he is, that's all.
Stewart's mom did a nice job raising him. Personally I'd get too pissed off in about ten minutes of that crap to carry on a conversation. Phil Donahue did the best against that kind of playground rhetoric I've ever seen.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ctlmholr45c
I got into it with a friend of mine the other day; I thought it would come to blows. He actually thinks BillO is something other than an entertainer, like a real newsman.
You've hit the proverbial nail on the head. People like Bilge-O, Clannity, and Lush are given unnecessary credit because their shows are on "news-talk" stations. So many stupid sheeple, almost as many stations broadcasting the tripe.
What's it gonna take to get reputable shows (like TDS) to just stop inviting BillO on? If everyone just starting ignoring him, he'd dry up and blow away.
Stewart took Falafel King to the woodshed.
This morning I saw the end of Bill's show from last night. He had this bumper sticker that said, "We Say Merry Christmas!" He said if you buy stuff he's selling on his site, he will send you one of these bumper stickers free.
Sounds like the first rumble of the war on Christmas 2008
... a lot of books so he can spam the troops in Iraq and Afghanistan with free copies of 'a fresh new piece of excrement'.
The troops could actually use spam. I think you need a new word for that kind of global pollution.
I can think of places Billo might want to avoid too - not because of violence, but because people actually think there. He's used to lecturing morons, and Stewart is not a moron.
Another conservative myth is that the US is a Christian country because the founders were Christian. What's inconvenient to those tiny-brained folk is the fact that many of the more prominent "founders" were Deists, NOT Christians.
Actually Deists can be Christians, but not necessarily. In the Freemason chapters some of the Founding Fathers belonged to, one was required to state a belief in God, but not give any further details. Some of them seemed to equate the term God with Ideals or Truth, not necessarily anthropomorphic.
Traditionally in anthropomorphic religion it's set up by the relative activity/inactivity of Deity(ies) and proximity. These are disinterested/distant, disinterested/close, interested/distant and interested/close. There's also transcedence v imminence. No one of these can claim the sole definition of their religion.
The Vedanta people of India have definitions that seem to cover ALL religions: Vedanta Bhatkal, Vedanta Raja, and at least 2 others whose names are eluding me at the moment.
Too many atheists, agnostics and humanists think if you reject fundamentalism you reject all the religions, but that's allowing the fundamentalists the priviledge of setting the terms of debate.
So Billo is saying right of center people are so unreasonable, they'll slowly and tortuously kill people who express an opposing point of view? And he's on THEIR side?
What an asshole. To the bone. Glad he's not one of ours.
Keep it up Billo. Giving your peeps that kind of hype and it will earn you a place as 'not one of theirs' too.
As soon as 'The Smart One' figures out what was said and 'splains it to the rest of them.
It's kinda ironic that the only place that the Republican brand is actually appealing is in the geographic center-right of the U.S.
If being "center/right" means getting killed if one goes to Alabama then "center/right" is a criminal enterprise, correct?
How about, Bill, you give away bumper stickers that say, "We Say Merry Christmas and Fuck off, Bill!"...Probably sell a hell of a lot more of your crap...
I enjoyed the segment.
I thought John did a great job of making Bill seem silly and giving him the teddy Bear and hot Cocoa to assuage his "fears" of what an Obama Presidency might entail was perfect.
Bill is such a liar BTW.He came out and immediately made up a story about being schooled by Nuns and how he himself was a "thug".
Asked for examples of what made him a thug,Bill concocted an absurd cliched story of dipping a girls poneytail in an inkwell for God sake.
I'm almost certain that never happened,but it IS very telling.
It illustrates what a casual Liar O'Reilly is-lying about mundane nonsense to make himself into something he is not.He's NOT the "working class" Irish tough guy he wants people to believe he is,rather he was raised in an upper middle class environment.
His need to be something he is not,is pathetic.Almost sad.
when did that fucker go to school? 1910?
I know-it's embarrassing.
...if he had any sense of shame and/or irony. Those bad-ass nuns musta beat it all out of him.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksR0si3ZloY
But to nearly everyone else in the country, these are the far right corners of the nation.
And it's pretty telling that O'Reilly thinks that's the center.
That is exactly correct! The purpose of all of O'Really?'s and FUX's propaganda is to shift the spectrum itself, so that reality:
becomes FUXed Reality:
That way, he can spout his nonsense about comparing Kos to Nazis with a straight face. He wants that to be how the spectrum is understood.
I would say the country is center left. They want more regulations of business, they think the government has a part to play in our economy, they're tired of hot-button social issues like abortion/school prayer/creationism and want attention to the economy. Their not exactly for abortion, but don't want to change the laws to make it illegal. They even seem to be swinging around toward favoring unions again. During a Airline strike involving non-pilots it was like the union was being cheered along by everyone. They want increases in the minimum wage, and some kind of Universal Health-care. They don't want social security replaced with Wallstreet.
it's a center right country. If you ask people how they stand on specific issues, this nation is overhwelmingly left, to a healthy degree off center. However, how often are specific issues discussed?
That's exactly it. They hate the term liberal (which the reichwing have demonized)but accept its basic principles.
You could call it false-consciousness, which Karl Marx used to describe people supportive of of the causes for the higher classes they mis-identify with or wish ultimately to join. Combined with the American myth of Upward Mobility that skews to the favor of these smaller but more powerful classes.
The funny thing is both Bill Clinton and Barack Obama typify the Horatio Alger story, but are so loathed by the conservatards.
Abortion rights Consistantly hold 55%, or there abouts. that is not center right. get bill o to respond to that.
Why did Republican primary voters choose John McCain?
Because he was the one who was considered centrist and maverick. Because he was the non-right, non-ideologue. Because they knew that that was their only chance of winning a national election in which the country itself had become (or was finally willing to show that it was) center-left. The Republican Revolution failed. Conservatism failed. And neo-conservatism was an unmitigated, deadly disaster. The Republican Party itself had to move left in order to win a national election.
Why did John McCain pick Sarah Palin?
Because he knew that Republican ideologues were rallying against him for being the "centrist maverick." They didn't like that. And they purported to be willing to sink his chances if he didn't put one of them on the ticket.
Had McCain ignored them, he'd probably have had a better chance at the presidency in a generally center-left country. But what happened?
Sarah Palin was revealed to be the Know Nothing, stupid, hard-right ideologue that she was, and even moderate Republicans jumped ship. She did energize Know Knowthing Knation itself to vote in greater numbers, but they still lost.
People may self-identify as "center-right," but Stewart is correct. It doesn't actually match what they believe in. And we need look no further than the Republican Party's choices this year to prove it.
and I rarely do... He just operates on a level so far above me [/snark]
The center-right of this country are fundamentalist Muslims?
Hoo-boy. Someone is gonna get it.
As an aside, does the IOKIYAR rule still hold? I just want to keep up.
This is a center right country?
And June Cleaver will soon be here in her high heels and pearls to clean up for Billo.
Have far detatched from reality can these clowns get?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-xHPU6NulM
The last part of that clip is the perfect example of how out of touch with reality Bill O. is. It also shows how un-patriotic he is.
I mean c'mon man you called the stuffed thing in your hand a panda for one, when it was clearly a toy crafted and named after one of the best U.S. Presidents ever.
Shame!
Boo that man.
Can I get a boooo bill o?
The hatred seeps through.
If you spend any time watching the punditocracy (and unfortunately, I do), you'll notice that this "America is center-right" myth has permeated every cable news show, including the supposedly left-leaning ones. I'm certain I've heard Matthews/Gregory/too-many-on-CNN-to-name lay claim to this talking point on many occasions. The only reason they get away with this is that the term "liberal" has been so doggedly stigmatized by the right. As Stewart points out in this interview, though very few people call themselves liberal, the vast majority of Americans take the liberal position on every major policy issue (as previously pointed out above, abortion is the most obvious). I've noticed that this center-right BS has become the most ubiquitous talking point of the right in the post-election aftermath. Methinks they are just trying to convince themselves in an effort to feel better about their now thoroughly repudiated ideology and the royal trouncing they got last week. I don't feel bad for them, but I can't blame them. They are intellectually dishonest and generally weak-minded. The problem with that is that many, many Americans (who are also generally weak-minded and susceptible) will buy into this myth if they repeat it enough (just as they did with the "liberal is a dirty word" mantra), and I've been hearing it nonstop since last Tuesday.
. It's what the corporatists want you to believe.
Do you actually consider David Gregory, Karl Roves dance partner as left of center? Gregory is nothing more than a shallow rich celebrity that has more in common with the right wing fat cats than with the American people that struggle every day just to get by.
He's a douchbag.
on tv these center right comments are going unanswered by the democrat talking heads. we need better spokes dummies.