Wed, August 25, 2004
Kerry on The Daily Show—8:37 PM
I hope everyone caught this, it was pretty good. Those who know me know that I'm no fan of Kerry, but I think he did a great job of keeping the discussion light while maintaining a focus on his ideas and the issues that he feels should be important in this campaign. (So many political figures skew too far in one direction or the other, taking the show way too seriously, or trying so hard to be funny that they seem frivolous.) Jon Stewart was pretty soft on him (we'll see if Ed Gillespie brings that up on tonight's episode), but I believe Jon when he says he's not partisan. In his own way, I think all of his easy questions for Kerry weren't intended to make Kerry look good so much as to give him a real opportunity to respond to the issues that are currently getting so much airplay and so little real thoughtful debate.
The Colbert story was hilarious (and chilling) also. Is that really his daughter? Does anyone have info on this?
Joe Mulder — Thu, 8/26/04 1:13pm
"Those who know me know that I'm no fan of Kerry, but I think he did a great job of keeping the discussion light while maintaining a focus on his ideas and the issues that he feels should be important in this campaign."
Yeah, I actually could have written this exact sentence. Kerry's good, and especially good when someone's lobbing softballs at him (which is not a dig at either Kerry or Stewart; some people look like doofuses even when fielding softballs, but Kerry comes off as impressively well-prepared and well-informed. And, it's not Stewart's place to grill politicians in person. That's not satire)
I'd argue that the concept of "non-partisanship" among "Daily Show" people is absurd, but, that's me. But, for a comedy show, funny is more important for me.
Incidentally, the light bulb went off above my head watching last night's show: shouldn't Lewis Black be the new "Weekend Update" guy on "Saturday Night Live"? Isn't this a no-brainer?
And, by the way, how perfect is Ed Gillespie at his job? Stewart introduced him, and he came out to what barely qualifies as a smattering of chilly, requisite applause. But he's just such a damn nice, fun guy that, at the end of the interview, the audience genuinely applauded (and a couple people even "Woo!"ed). Plus, when you consider that his counterpart is Terry McAuliffe (who could probably get even the "Daily Show" audience to boo him), it's even more stunning.
And, I was happy that Stewart spend most of the Gillespie interview telling him to bring Bush on "The Daily Show," because, yeah. Kerry did, Bush should. It could be Bush's "Nixon on Laugh In" moment. If he could be half as good as he was in "Journeys With George" (which is an admittedly tall order), I think it would help him a lot.
"michwagn" — Sun, 8/29/04 4:02pm
Yes. Why hasn't Lorne Michaels called Lewis Black? What is he smoking?
Good point on Gillespie being good at his job, he certainly is. He also did a decent job deflecting some of Stewart's ire about Iraq.
I think President Bush should do "The Daily Show," but I don't think that he will unless Stewart's people agree to let Bush's people select the audience. A lot of "TDS'" core crowd would boo and that is the kind of thing that, in today's sad ass media would be blown into a "flap" - and it is too close to take that kind of risk.
As for "Journeys with George," you can sure see why the reporters liked him so much. I show that show to my students when we talk about media and elections. Good show.