Last night I watched John Stewart interview John Kerry on Comedy Central’s “Daily Show.” Then I watched the already-infamous “Lewinsky” scene featuring Chloe Sevigny and Vincent Gallo (available here) (link OK, but has further link to EXTREMELY NSFW video!!!).
I gotta tell ya, Stewart’s performance gave Sevigny’s serious challenges in both talent and enthusiasm.
J.
I couldn’t believe that Kerry was picking that show to make his first TV appearance since the Swift Boat storm hit. But after watching it, I totally understand it. It scanned as if Kerry’s team sat down with Stewart and the Daily Show’s writers and scripted the entire thing, word for word, right down to the godawful ketchup joke.
The Swift Boat controversy is starting to turn agains the Republicans, the tide is turning, people are saying enough already, more and more contradictions to the so called SBVFT are coming out every day from official Navy records.
And for them to say there was a “vast Kerry conspiracy” to doctor the records of the Navy is patently rediculous. For anyone knows about the armed forces, you need to have signatures in triplicate for everything. That would mean that each one of these reports would need at least 2 co-consprirators.
I come back to my original conclusion. At best this is a draw, (look at the NYT editorial “When Truth Dies in Battle). I think that says it best.
When the SBVFT realize that their attacks are no longer effective at achieving their overall goal of electing GWB, they will stop. And it is not to defeat Kerry because if that was the case they would have started these attacks back in January to defeat him in the primary.
Dave
Well put, Dave. An excellent posting, marred by two minor, almost inconsequential flaws.
1) Citing the New York Times to reinforce credibility on a political point is, to put it mildly, absurd. To put it honestly, actually gives you negative credibility. The NYT has lost nearly every single shred of respectability it spent over 150 years building up. (Too many examples to mention when I’m late for work.)
B) Your comments are utterly irrelevant to the topic at hand — namely, John Kerry on the Daily Show. True, the Swifties were briefly touched upon, but it was one minute element.
But thanks for playing! We have some lovely parting gifts for you…
J.
The Swift Boat controversy is starting to turn agains the Republicans, the tide is turning,
Yeah Dave– That’s why Kerry is calling the guys in the ads personally begging them to call off the attack. That is why Edwards is trying to get Bush to help them get them off the air. That is why the Dems are suing over them.
If the “tide were turning” against Republicans then why the HELL are the dems trying so dam hard to get the ads off the air?
If the “tide were turning” against Republicans then why the hell do the poll numbers show Kerry is losing his ass over this?
Look- Spin is fine, but try to make it come close to lining up with reality would ya?
There is already another artical re-questioning the Alabama Bush Guard record that just surfaced. That is why GWB is treading lightly so his skelatons do not come out of the closet.
Dave
Dave, if official military records are such a be-all and end-all and should be accepted at The Final Word, how come no one from Camp Kerry seems to accept Bush being honorably discharged from the Texas Air National Guard, and keep looking for something — anything — to refute that pronouncement from on high?
I couldn’t bear to watch it. My wife did, though, and she informed me that it was every bit the hand job I had expected. I used to enjoy John Stewart, and even put up with all of his conservative bashing just to get to his ripping of the standard tv news formats. But one night, he was making fun of Allawi for wanting the job of Iraqi PM, derisively laughing at this guy who was putting his very life on the line for the future of Iraqi democracy. That was it for me.
I don’t think the Swiftees give a damn about electing Bush. They just don’t want to see Kerry (and his version of the war) afforded the credibility that comes with the office of the Presidency. This is about 1971, not 2004. It’s these guys’ last chance to get their licks in.
He asked for it, if you ask me. How arrogant of a man to think he can have something as big as that war on his own terms.
You’ve touched on my major media nerve. I can’t bear to watch teh Daily Show for even a minute anymore. EVERY TIME I happen to flip it on, they are engaging in some form of virulent partisanship. They’ve lost me as a viewer; the show literally makes me ill.
I can’t help but wonder if this is the smartest strategy for a comedy show that’s angling for ratings.
DR Steve,
If the SBVFT don’t care about electing Bush as you say then why didn’t they go after Kerry in January and tell the american people that someone else would be a good alternative to Bush, they waited until he won the nomination.
That says to me that they are Republican partisans. If they attacked him in January so he would not win the nomination then that would have some validity.
Dave
I’ve got a love/hate relationship with The Daily Show. I think *by and large*, they’re even-handed “go wherever the joke is” humorists, but…. The problem is that it’s all anchored to a MoveOn.org-style leftie worldview. So I’m torn between hysterical laughter and angrily throwing things at the TV, often in the same show.
Lately, I haven’t been watching it, not needing that much aggravation….
Dave –
I’ve spoken to one of the Swift Vets (the first vet in the second commercial), and they DID go after Kerry during the primaries. They gave a press conference earlier in the year that was largely ignored by everyone except CSPAN.
More recently, they aquired funding from Republican sources that now have a vested interest in seeing Kerry defeated.
So tell me, after being ignored by the media, where were they supposed to get funding?
Dave,
In January, wasn’t Howard Dean considered to have the nomination in the bag by the Conventional Wisdom? And I know Kerry was, for a long time, thought of as almost “dead man walking” in the Democratic field.
If there was no apparent danger of the man becoming Commander-in-Chief, there would have been no reason to start something like SBVT. It’d be like spending a lot of money to form an anti-Kucinich 527; what’s the point?
Dave, your counter doesn’t address my contention at all. One can’t infer from these guys’ being anti-Kerry that they’re necessarily pro-Bush. They just don’t want Kerry’s version of the Vietnam war to become the “official history” by being the centerpiece of his Presidential campaign (and maybe the Presidential mythology to follow).
The Swiftees had a NPC conference on May 4th, and it got -no- coverage outside C-SPAN.
Anyway, my opinion is that this is deeply personal (payback) stuff for these men.
Kerry should never have used his Vietnam service that he obviously dispised in his campaign and it’s as simple as that. The vets did not care if he made senator but they eventually cared after finding out he was trying for the highest office in the country. I’m for the vets that are against Kerry whom is a communist in desguise anyway. Does anybody smell “Manchurian Candidate”. Kinda
interesting…huh?Why should they like or even pull for someone that turned on them and sympathize for what they were fighting against.
The fact of the matter is…Kerry should be scrutinized for what he did not in Vietnam….but for what he did or didn’t do during his time as a senator. He didn’t do much for sure.