"Dick Move of the Week": John McCain has been making more news with one of his new attack ads against Barack Obama, in which he calls Obama out for being an attention-seeking celebrity, just like Britney Spears and Paris Hilton. That's not the bad part though. That honor goes to the fact that Paris' parents support McCain and have sent thousands of dollars for his campaign. Smooth move, my man. Smooth move."Indecision 2008": With the right's claims that Obama is an elitist arugula-eater, the rest of the media is jumping on too, wondering if Obama is becoming too arrogant and an over-promiser. Leave it to the guy on Comedy Central to point out the obvious: All presidential candidates are a bit arrogant and over-promising. If they weren't super confident and full of bright views of the future, how would they convince people to vote for them? This entire clip collection was magical. It's times like this that I am reminded of how what a grueling job it must be to go through all that video to catch stuff that would otherwise fly under the radar. In other news, John McCain can find several billion dollars within a day.
"The Best F*cking News Team Ever": God bless the Daily Show correspondents and hardcore graphics department. Tired of the boring and untrue promos for campaign coverage by the likes of Fox News and CNN, TDS decided to do their own, boasting their crack team of reporters and super-science rocket. It looks like they filmed this when they were all together to photograph new promotional pictures as well. I kept trying to get a glimpse of Samantha Bee's belly to see if she was super-pregnant at the time, which would explain why she's Photoshop'd into an incredibly strange body shape in the pictures. Anyway, there were a lot of great moments in this, including, "... With a Marine, an English guy, a woman, the Jones clones, whatever Aasif Mandvi is, and the new guy, who's never been told he's adopted." I also like to pretend that the cast actually hangs out in their off-time, playing mailbox baseball. And, in case you're wondering, Aasif Mandvi is from India.
The night's guest was Brian Williams, just home from his super-sweet vacay with Barack Obama. Mr. Williams isn't the first name I turn to for the news, but I still love watching him on television, especially when it's related to comedy. His surprisingly sharp performance in the latest season of Saturday Night Live made me respect the man on a whole new level. It's also really nice to see him on TDS, even when it was as a totally arbitrary Giant Head gag (thank goodness that died about as fast as "Seat of Heat", though). I bet Jon even put on this snazzy blue shirt/tie combination just for BriWi. Okay, back on point... Mr. Williams was on the show to talk about his interview with Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (I swear I typed his name correctly with only one try), but I was surprised to hear absolutely no mention of his exclusive time with Obama. As usual, he balanced humor and information very, very well.
Moment of Zen: Senator Chuck Grassley seemed rather proud of his extended metaphor of the Senate, calling it constipated.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
8-01-2008 @ 2:37PM
Franklin said...
Knowing your political leanings and seeing how you link to a politically-biased site like huffingtonpost, I'm not surprised that you missed the point of the ad. The ad's not saying McCain, or any other politician running for office, isn't an attention-seeker. They all are. The point is that's all Obama has going for him. He's got no real experience or solid record, just ideas and dreams, so he speaks about those dreams and ideas with the misplaced confidence of the inexperienced. He has plenty of ideas with no clue as to how to make them work in the real world, just how they'd work in his idealistic fantasy world of a marxist utopia.
I think both Obama and McCain are at heart decent people, at least when it comes to their desire to make the country better. They do have very different ideas on how to accomplish that and while I don't agree with much either has to offer, I know McCain's ideas are grounded in a great deal of experience while Obama's are pretty much a "wish list". Wishes are nice, but we can't run a country on them.
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8-01-2008 @ 5:00PM
nickmagoo said...
honestly - Obama is promoting a "fantasy world" and a "Marxist utopia??" hooboy...the leaders of numerous countries, incl. iraq, jordan, israel (and the palestinians), germany, france, and england seem pretty impressed w/ Obama's grasp of global situations - this after McCain basically challenged him to go overseas. then McC pouts that O got all this press for going overseas and hitting a home run.
As for McC's foreign "experience" - there are any number of quotes of McCain mixing up countries, battling religious groups, political factions - there seems to be a new one every other day. how many mistakes can he make before serious questions are asked?
and the financial crisis? he already said he really doesn't know anything about economics. and using phil gramm as a econ. advisor should be huge warning sign for any candidate. then there's the keating 5 s&l scandal connection. for his surrogates to paint obama as an 'elitist' when McC owns 10 houses and walks around in $500 ferragamos is pretty ridiculous as well.
okay, this is a tv site, i'll leave my political ramblings there...
8-01-2008 @ 5:09PM
StillBash said...
Great comment Franklin!
I simply can't stop snickering. Let me sum up what you just said: Obama has no experience (you omit 7 years as Illinois senator there with a wave of a hand but ok) and he just has dreams.
Remind me again what the comment "I'll find you a hundred billions tomorrow" means to you again. What's that again? Fact? Let's talk program: somebody tells McCain he can't have his cake and eat it too (namely keep on spending like the Bush administration while also keeping the tax cut for the upper and higher class of the population while here and there throwing checks at the poor) and he just says "I'll pull money out of a hat tomorrow".
Great arguments there. Kudos. You just taught me that "experience" basically means lying to the voter with a straight face and if asked about it laughing it off and behaving as if the person who asked the question doesn't know anything about finances.
I'll take the dreamer in a heartbeat to be honest. At least he's not lying his ass off.
And about the show: They got a f***ing rocket, man!
8-01-2008 @ 5:21PM
Caroline said...
Wow, that's bold. Maybe you should just stick to the O'Reilly factor, good sir, because it seems as though you've got your channels, and your mind, all mixed up. To say that Obama has "nothing else going for him," to a liberal bunch is not only remarkably dumb (and might I say, incredibly off the mark) but also very pointless.
8-01-2008 @ 5:43PM
StillBash said...
In the IL Senate, not senator. But whatever. Go read his Wikipedia page.
8-01-2008 @ 1:02PM
No1Dad said...
"That's not the bad part though.... Paris' parents support McCain and have sent thousands of dollars for his campaign. "
Wow, that is bad. Someone should tell McCain that politicians are supposed to be beholden to their big money donors.
Nice catch, TDS.
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8-01-2008 @ 2:00PM
jkchicago said...
This was by far the best episode I've seen for a while (not that there are any really bad ones). I agree that what Jon said about McCain is exactly what I've been saying; if you're running for president, you're rich and arrogant by definition. And yet, McCain is the one complaining about the mainstream media coverage...
I also enjoyed Brian Williams; it's clear they get along really well.
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8-01-2008 @ 5:36PM
bstoke said...
Whenever I see Brian Williams in comedy mode, I think he could write and deliver satire at least as sharp as the Daily Show on their best days, if not even better.
And that's not just his anchor-strength level of gravitas. He's really that good.
Too bad he's lost to the dark side, or what he calls "real news".
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8-01-2008 @ 8:38PM
StillBash said...
Yeah but the Dark Side has cookies...
8-01-2008 @ 11:01PM
willy the impeached said...
When does the Daily Show have to file with the Federal Election Commission? Its basically ad time for the DNC and B. Hussein Obama so how do they tabulate the value of that contribution? Is it ad revenue?
Did some twit actually say foreign leaders are impressed with Osama errr Obama? You need to put the crack pipe down son or missy, no one is impressed with him when there isn't a teleprompter around.
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8-02-2008 @ 4:03AM
nickmagoo said...
i'd be the twit...and it's mister, not missy. your osama/obama jibe is frankly tired and juvenile. do you honestly think it's funny to compare a presidential candidate to a mass murdering terrorist? and if you do, well...you must work for fox news.
O is, like McC, first and foremost a politician, and politicians often do what they think will get them the most votes, not what is always the right thing (ie - fisa...ugh). the recent new yorker article is very illuminating regarding O's early years in illinois and i highly suggest everyone give it a read. it shows a man who knew what he wanted, and learned how to achieve it, for better or worse (mostly for better, but again, he's a politician, just like McC).
i'll just say regarding O's foreign trip - Maliki agreed w/ O regarding a possible time line (or is that time horizon?) regarding US troop draw down. O is right about the need for afghanistan to be the focus on the so called 'war on terror.' the King of Jordan chose to drive O personally to the airport - not a huge deal, but to me shows a large amount of respect for the man. and it appeared to most that Angela Merkel much preferred talking with O than getting a creepy back rub from W. he's highly intelligent, thinks things through, and considers all sides of an argument. i much prefer that to someone who blithely sang 'bomb bomb bomb, bomb bomb iran,' forgot (more than once!) czechoslovakia isn't a country anymore (esp. since we want to put a missile base in the czech repub.), and didn't know the difference between sunni and shia...
As for speaking without a teleprompter, i'd be the first to say both candidates have made misstatements, but McC's (and his surrogates') seem (to me at least) more constant and disturbing in the whole scheme of foreign affairs and the current financial crisis...okeedoke, i'm done. cheers, nick
8-01-2008 @ 11:05PM
willy the impeached said...
[from Andy McCarthy]
This guy is going to be harder than Bill Clinton to keep up with. The next whopper whips along before you have time to wrap your brain around the last one.
At Powerline, John Hinderaker goes through Obama's continuing contortions (in Israel) over how Jerusalem must remain the undivided capitol of Israel, unless of course it is divided and unless of course it is also the capitol of "Palestine," which possibilities absolutely positively mark no change in the messiah's original decree, which he really really meant, that Jerusalem must remain the undivided capitol of Israel. Obama then continued (italics mine):
Now, in terms of knowing my commitments, you don't have to just look at my words, you can look at my deeds. Just this past week, we passed out of the U.S. Senate Banking Committee, which is my committee, a bill to call for divestment from Iran, as a way of ratcheting up the pressure to ensure that they don't obtain a nuclear weapon.
John explains the rest:
But Obama is not a member of the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee. Obama just made that up so he could count the committee's action as one of "my deeds."
If committed by a Republican, this would be a gaffe of historic proportions. Even a Senator as inattentive to his duties as Obama certainly knows what committees he serves on. For him to fabricate the claim, out of whole cloth, that the Senate Banking Committee is "[his] committee," strikes me as another sign of Obama's megalomania. That, plus more evidence that he is totally at sea without a teleprompter.
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8-02-2008 @ 3:31PM
StillBash said...
"If committed by a Republican, this would be a gaffe of historic proportions. Even a Senator as inattentive to his duties as Obama certainly knows what committees he serves on. For him to fabricate the claim, out of whole cloth, that the Senate Banking Committee is "[his] committee," strikes me as another sign of Obama's megalomania. That, plus more evidence that he is totally at sea without a teleprompter."
*snicker*
Seriously, you judge Obama by how good he's able to perform during speeches without a teleprompter? Lovely. I guess 'subliminable' you know that that's now really what makes a president. Or DOES It?
8-02-2008 @ 5:17AM
ChrisG said...
No1Dad, Franklin, willy the impeached, intelligent political discourse doesn't seem to be your 'thing', mildly speaking, so all you do with your rambling, is make the 'Right' look even more like a looney bin than it already is.
Also, your behaviour makes the right look a tad (again, mildly speaking) desperate, when you have to start political arguments even on a frickin' TV SITE! Your ilk seems to be terribly afraid this time, because the election is as good as lost for you.
It's really fun watching you all throw a tantrum, because your beloved Republicans are self-imploding and you don't get it your way for once, and projecting it all on everyone else...
And regarding 'being envious of America', the last time I checked, your 'great country' is practically owned by China, with all your debt. The next time I'll be shopping in New York, taking advantage of your weak dollar ;-), I'll be thinking about what Ricky Gervais (to come back on topic, as this is a site about TV, remember?) asked on Letterman: 'How does it feel to be a third world country?'
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8-03-2008 @ 6:39PM
Go with the Flow said...
Franklin, spare the lecture and give other people a chance to comment, you name-calling...commentator.
Oh, by the way, if we take the way you look at the word as correct (which you are convinced it is - well done there...), with Obama lovers being 'commies', does that make you a 'fascist'? You know, take a side on the spectrum, scooch over just a little? Come on, stop bullying other users.
I'm amazed at this personal abuse. Shame on you, "Franklin".
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8-03-2008 @ 6:52PM
Go with the Flow said...
Me again. You know, I was looking for some light reading about comedy before I went off to bed for the night. Instead I read a vicious and sexist personal attack aimed at Caroline.
"Franklin", our Frowning Father, dislikes her standing up to "him" so calls her her "drug-addled" and "extremely popular with the men...what with being so willing to go along with whatever seems popular with others." And then mentions STDs.
This sort of comment is really very, very creepy. Kind of abusive. Teensy bit scary? Anyone?
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8-04-2008 @ 12:02AM
Jo said...
I'm still trying to work out where he got "drug-addled" from in Caroline's post. That entire first paragraph of his response to Caroline - especially trying oh-so-hard to work in an STD reference - is shameful. Shame on you, Mr. "Franklin."
I actually didn't even catch those horrible remarks to Caroline the first time around, because I was already outraged by his accusations that it is StillBash's "fondest wish that America fall" and his insults to Germany, both of which, are again, of absolutely no relevance. In America, we had a little thing called slavery. You want to defend that, Mr. Franklin? He must be another one of those people who think Germany = Nazi. *sigh*
There's a reason I reported him. And it's unfortunate that when the world thinks of America, Franklin is what comes up.
8-04-2008 @ 12:08AM
Jo said...
Also, the stance on the McCain ad that the Daily Show was taking was that he was basically making fun of one of his big donors. Which is more heinous than the "Obama is a celebrity" point McCain was attempting to make with the ad.
Oh, I love trolls.
And I agree that Brian Williams was awesome. He's so quick-witted and snarky, I could watch him and Jon banter for hours. I want him to show up more.
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