You gotta feel for Jon Stewart, who has one of the toughest jobs in show business. He has to be informed, folksy, intelligent, self-deprecating, persistent, polite, informative without being pedantic and both witty and funny simultaneously, which is not easy.
And today, he had to be reasonable.
Oy. Reasonable. How’s a guy supposed to run a 150,000-person rally on the Washington Mall being reasonable?
Pretty well, actually. Considering the self-imposed handicap, Stewart and Stephen Colbert could’ve done worse with their Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear. Some of the musical guests were predictable (John Legend, Sheryl Crow), others less so (the O’Jays and Ozzy Osbourne).
I could have done without a benediction from Don Novello’s Father Guido Sarducci, an act that should’ve gotten the hook about 20 years ago. I’d also have liked to have seen the Mythbusters orchestrate the crowd into a halftime-show marching-band arrangement that spelled “WTF?”, something a guy could see from the International Space Station, just in case the aliens are watching. But I’m funny that way. Maybe not.
Stewart was Stewart, albeit dialed down a couple of notches. But Colbert gets the Doggy for best gag. He “honored” the mainstream media (including The New York Times, CNN and NPR) with one of his Fear Medals for ordering their employees not to attend the rally, and then draped it around the neck of someone with more guts — a 7-year-old girl.
I would’ve liked more snark, but then I’m a bitter old left-wing partisan media hack. And even I, Captain Cynical, got a little lift from seeing all those folks in one place, having a more or less good time. No screamers, no book-burners; nobody with fake blood (or the real deal) on his or her hands, or being hanged in effigy. Just a bunch of folks who had come to the nation’s capital to be reasonable.
Let’s hope we send a few more of them there on Tuesday.
Mad Blog Media 
Tell it OG!
Jon Stewart is the best interviewer on TV when he is serious, in my humble opinion.
Stewart is good. I particularly love to see him call the other media folk on their bullshit. His takedown of Tucker Carlson was epic.
You in McDowell yet, Charley? If so, how’s the weather down there? Shorts and short sleeves up here, which is seriously weird for Halloween. Usually the trick-or-treaters have to wear REI parkas over their costumes.
Tony Bennett.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0lBs6-Z-6CE&feature=related will show you the nut-job who represents ME in Congress! Iowa’s 5th Congressional District’s been carved into one of those “safe-havens” for extremists like this. I’ve seen Stevie in-person and decided he’s not as dumb as he acts — it’s all a clever act to rile up the real screwballs who support him. We don’t need any more of these folks in DC so get out and vote on Tuesday!
Larry, I feel for you. King of the WingNuts is giving us Iowans a bad name. I’ve been cringing every time I hear his “No, No, & No” commercial on the radio on the east coast of Iowa.
Ahhh, “thanks” for that bit of film there Larry… You’ve talked about this clown for awhile now, but I was always afraid to go looking into him, having a pretty good idea of what I’d find. I took the bait on this link and I really wished I hadn’t. I mean, you’ve got to be kidding me, right? Whether or not he’s “not as dumb as he acts”, you gotta ask: how in the fuck did this idiot get elected in the first place? I don’t care if it’s an act; that is some very, very scary shit.
My friend, you two need to get the hell outta that state and back to Italia asap…
Larry T: Wow. It’s Hannity, Limbaugh, and Coulter, frankensteined into one middle-aged white guy, voting on federal legislation, and shooting from the hip on the AM dial all at the same time.