Commentary

Daily Show’s Jon Stewart Erupts Over Patriot Palin

It was 11pm, time to put my Mac to sleep and my butt on the couch for the Daily Show with Jon Stewart. I was in the mood for a hearty chuckle, but WOW! is all I can say after watching the first ten minutes. (Two videos follow the jump.) Apparently, Mr. Stewart has had enough of Republican Vice Presidential nominee Sarah Palin and her attempts to draw a new American map that separates the patriotic rural lands from the “haters” and abortionists who dwell in the urban areas, located mainly on the coasts. I’ve seen Stewart rant before – but never like this. It’s apparent that 2008 election is creating great comedy as it tears the nation apart at the seams.

Stewart was ripping on Palin in front of college students in Boston on Friday night, responding to her comments before faithful followers in North Carolina the day before. I doubt Stewart or any of the Daily Show crew slept over the weekend. (Please view both Stewart’s performance in Boston and CNN’s coverage of Palin’s campaign remarks.)

They loaded their acerbic stun guns with enough juice to put Palin and a 1,000 pound moose into deep comas. Daily Show correspondent Jason Jones went to Wasilla, the small Alaskan town where Palin served as mayor. He interviewed white rural folks in scary bars, roamed the WalMarts and Lowe’s superstores and interviewed the town’s current under-worked mayor.

I empathize with Stewart and his crew. I am disgusted at John McCain and Sarah Palin’s loathsome efforts to divide Americans in order to shift the focus away from their total lack of substance. I think all the writers at the Daily Show erupted, letting everything fly last night – making the folks from a small Alaskan town look like superstitious bigots. But, it’s a left-leaning comedy show – they weren’t producing a documentary for the History Channel. Their intense reaction to Palin’s vile attempts to turn Americans against each other shows that this campaign tactic is creating fault lines that will last well beyond the 2008 election.

I found posts from The Weekly Standard Blog and NewsBusters on Technorati that focus on Jon Stewart’s rant against Sarah Palin. Both are considered respectable conservative websites. I’ve pulled quotes from each post, but please click the links to read the complete texts.

From NewsBusters:

“Don’t you love how liberals in the same breath they’re complaining about the divisiveness in America spew some of the worst hatred you can imagine towards those they disagree with?”

And, from The Weekly Standard Blog:

“During the same routine… he seemed to write off Palin’s rural swath of the country, referring to the governor’s home not as Alaska, Wasilla, or Juneau, but as ‘the woods.’”

They’ve both criticized Stewart for engaging in the same divisiveness that has marked every Palin campaign rally. They don’t seem to take issue with what set Jon Stewart off in the first place. He may have gone a little overboard – but he’s a freakin’ comedian for God the Wonderful and Glorious Almighty’s sake! What the hell are these two conservative sites doing? How do their writers sleep at night? Did Barack Obama or Joe Biden say this? No, they did not – a late night comedian did. I’m off to blast these clowns right in their patriotic pie holes. Let me know what you think about the videos of Palin and Stewart, and the posts from the two sites listed above. (Click here to see the Al Jazeera video from a Palin rally in eastern Ohio earlier this month.)

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© 2008 Splendid Marbles.