Cue the "Jon Stewart has sold out!" posts

[jpgray]

Never mind that he turned Santorum every way but loose.

Stewart: "But if in the sixties when everyone was more religious and less vulgar we had awful things like segregation, doesn't that mean a more religious culture and less vulgarity doesn't always prevent nasty behavior?"

Santorum: "Um er ah, families, strong, moral, values... er, Victoria's Secret."

Jon did good.

[Avalux]

1. Nah - Jon did good -

Santorum is a babbling idiot - "the value of virtues" :rofl:

[tuvor]

2. People are quick to bash Jon...

but do they write letters to the lazy news media?

I dunno. DO THEY?

[Rufus T. Firefly]

3. Jon subtlely ridiculed him.

I'd rather have a lot of conservatives on the show, getting made fun of, than just one getting ripped into. Because no more would show up after that.

[Chicago Democrat]

4. Your right, he was fine...

I will watch it again and maybe this time I wont scream "FU" and give the finger the screen and scream "Man on Dog?".



SANTORUM = THE ENEMY

[Mojambo]

5. He did very well

We may not like Santorum, but the fact of the matter is that he is a sitting United States Senator. Stewart wasn't going to take him behind the woodshed the way he did Goldberg.

[wtmusic]

13. I never quite understood

why people should get more respect than anyone else just because they hold office. I've met homeless people I respect more than Rick Santorum.

[jpgray]

18. One word from Jon and the audience would have tarred and feathered Rick

But I would guess he thinks, as I do, that it's worth some excess politeness to get these people in a public forum where they will face a few unexpected and difficult questions. Take Bob Woodward's interview with Stewart--the touted "Slam Dunk" quote was batted back and forth in the media for weeks with no real analysis. It took a -comedian- Stewart to state the obvious: "But they were pimping WMD for months before they even asked Tenet for this presentation of evidence." In other words, if Stewart went full steam at every conservative guest getting cheered on by his audience conservatives would treat it as a tiger pit and never come anywhere near his studio. This way he subtly mocks them and gets to throw questions no media pundit would dare throw. I'd also like to see Santorum grilled and have every premise he offers challenged to the hilt, but failing that I like to see him rendered incoherent by a simple logical argument against his ideas. Jon did that much tonight.

[wtmusic]

22. agreed

It has nothing to do with him being a Senator. It has to do with getting Republicans back on the show, and working them.

[blonndee]

6. Erm, well I was hoping for something more like his Goldberg

interview. I thought he could've challenged Santorum a little more. Like I thought he should have asked Santorum to define "virtue," at the very least. Jonnie Boy was okay but I was a little disappointed.

But I still love im.

[bookman]

33. I thought Jon held back, but...

..my wife clued me in. He just let him be a babbling idiot.

[Cleita]

7. Jon was great, what I heard anyway. Couldn't watch all of it. n/t

[Beware the Beast Man]

8. Heheh...I was waiting for this...

:thumbsup:

[Edgewater_Joe]

9. LOL! The 'Bennett 5-1' Joke Went RIGHT OVER Santorum's Idiot Head!

That alone made it worth it!

[Mojambo]

10. That was a great jab. n/t

[johnfunk]

11. Jon can't be TOO mean -- believe me, the RNCosa Nostra would blackball him

if he got aanywhere close to a bit "too" on the money. I think they made an exception for Bernie Goldberg because most right wing Republicans see him as nothing more than Ann Coulter with a smaller Adam's apple.

[gumby]

23. Yeowy-Zowie

Really did LOL at "I think they made an exception for Bernie Goldberg because most right wing Republicans see him as nothing more than Ann Coulter with a smaller Adam's apple." :rofl:

Unfortunately, the right-wing luvs Ann. They think she's b e a u t i f u l in body and mind. 'They' also luv that idiot Goldberg. He says "liberal media." That's the starting point for their fascist fantasy.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

12. Actually I: was a bit teed-off that the audience gave a large applaud at

the end. I hope it was because they were happy that they didn't have to listen anymore to the crap the prig was spewing out. He very soundly invalidated millions of people's relationships.

[Catch22Dem]

25. I think they were applauding Jon

He did very well.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

34. Ok, I can accept that, but don't you think that Sanctimonious thought it

might have been for him???

[jpgray]

35. I think the only applause strictly for Rick was his entrance ovation

And that was pretty tepid.

[gumby]

14. Haven't seen it yet, but...

If Sanatorium is doing 'Daily Show,' then that says a whole lot about Stewart's power and it says a lot about Sanatorium's vulnerability. Yes?

If Sanatorium was comfortable, then he could just do a spot on PigMan and count on the brain-dead for his support. Obviously, that is NOT the case. Hey?

[Firenze777]

15. The part about the 50's

where families were strong, but racism was rampant, Santorum said something like we have to respect everyone's rights.....I'm thinking, well WHAT ABOUT everyone- like gays, non-Christians, etc.

Disliking Lance Armstrong and Santorum, tonight was a bust. Give me Lewis Black and Mesopotamia any day!

[Kalish]

16. I wish I'd seen it

it sounds like Jon did an okay job all things considered.

[Catshrink]

17. It isn't on until 11pm here -- hope I can stay up.

Cox Cable doesn't run it here until 11pm -- midnight during standard time.

[dsc]

19. My only complaint is that he wasn't a bit more specific

on the adultery question. He had so many high profile Republicans he could have mentioned. Otherwise I agree that his soft approach was best.

[FreedomAngel82]

20. I think so too

I think since lately he has been really grilling the rightwingers.

[Cocoa]

21. he made the same excellent point to Goldberg

the farce of the culture wars is pretty easy to dismantle when you put your mind to it.

speaking of the culture wars, where has Bill Bennett been lately...

[NYCGirl]

24. Where's Bill Bennett?

Try Vegas.
:evilgrin:

[tomg]

26. I am of two minds about the interview.

On the one hand, Jon was considered, reasonable and allowed Santorum to make an ass of himself. And that really does more to harm Santorum. On the other hand, I really wanted to see Jon kick the shit out of him just because Santorum is so despicable.

edit: Still, when he had to explain the Bennet joke, it was great.

[jpgray]

28. Jon is still getting his feet for these politico interviews to some extent

His Dean, Kerry and Powell interviews I thought were pretty twee, for example. I think Stewart wants to establish his show as a venue for high-powered politicians, and until he's done that he doesn't want to scare them away by challenging them too hard. There was a time though when he would have been unable to rout Bernie Goldberg the way he did for similar reasons--originally the show only booked pop culture guests, and Stewart used to treat dime-a-dozen ideologue authors like Goldberg with excess respect as well. So I think all he needs is a little more time to ground himself for these more important interviews. This Santorum interview is a step in the right direction, to my mind.

[tomg]

30. Actually, I think you are right about this.

and I know in the long run that the kind of interview he did tonight is going, as you put it, in the right direction. Still, some very impractical and probably mildly sadistic part of me wanted to see Stewart do a Goldberg on him.

[Catch22Dem]

27. Remember what Jon said on Crossfire

He told them their show was hurting America because they don't talk about anything, they just shout over each other and no one gets to speak and no one gets to be heard. I think Jon did a very good job of showing America what civil discourse is all about. He played the "I don't agree with you AT ALL, but we can still sit here and have a conversation like grown ups." I think he did an excellent job. And fuckin' Santorum, to his credit, did as well. He's a fuckin' nutjob, but he behaved like an adult. An idiot, but an adult.

More people should follow the example shown tonight.

[Mojambo]

29. You got it exactly right. n/t

[Guaranteed]

31. What stood out in my mind was that Santorum kept saying that

it's best for "society" to have one man and one woman marriages, which was the basis for the rest of Santorum's rhetoric, and Jon just kept letting it slide by.

As the base of Santorum's argument, that's where he should have been attacked.

[electron_blue]

32. ah yes - it's the best interest of society

I kept waiting for Jon to ask him "why does he think that?"

I loved when he got to admit that gays can be virtuous - sure they can!

[Lex]

36. Hey, you were absolutely correct, jpgray!

You are prophetic.

[JPZenger]

37. Conditions Upon Appearances

Some guests place conditions upon their appearances. For example, they say that you cannot ask me any questions about my divorce, etc.

After the fierce Goldberg interview, I would expect that Santorum's people would say to Stewart's people: "he will only appear if we have a guarantee of a civil discussion."

By the way, according to the Harrisburg Patriot-News yesterday, Santorum freaked out on a reporter during an phone interview. The Patriot-News reporter called into a phone interview that was supposed to be limited to the "Catholic Press." Santorum freaked out on the reporter and yelled that he was not allowed to ask any questions or listen to the other questions.