It has been a long time since I declared my last enemy (my fiancee’s alarm clock), but a new one has emerged. Now, I am a big fan of the Colbert Report and occasionally a medium sized fan of the Daily Show. The Colbert Report is always hilarious; I think he’s a smarter man than Jon Stewart ( or at least his writers are). The Daily Show is usually fairly entertaining, except when it comes to his guests. Sometimes they’re informative, sometimes they’re funny, sometimes they’re a waste of time. The problem is that his show is largely centered around the guest; if he has a good guest, his show is good. If he doesn’t, it’s not. Yesterday, he had Howard Dean.
Now, Howard Dean, for a long time, was an amusing nonentity. He ran for President in 2004, made a primal scream, earned lots of laughs, and disappeared back into the woods of Socialist Vermont. He’s all of a sudden become DNC Chairman. I have no idea how this happened, but he did. Surprisingly, Jon Stewart was pretty hard on Howard Dean; usually he’s got a lighter touch with Democrats/liberals than conservatives. He made lots of good points on the incomprehensibility of the Democratic nominating system. He asked why the system wasn’t more streamlined, like that of the Republicans.
Dean’s response: “They just choose the 25 richest guys… I’m sorry, 100 richest guys to be nominees.”
Let’s see… ad hominem attack? Check. Completely evading the question? Check. (Remember, the question was about how the party selects their Presidential ticket, NOT how the nominees are chosen in the first place). Getting his facts wrong? Check. (Here’s the list of the world’s richest men. John McCain is not on this list. What about America only? Hmm… not there either.) Attacking the interviewer (not literally, but I’d pay to see them duke it out)? Check.
Why… THOSE ARE ALL THINGS THE MEDIA ACCUSES REPUBLICANS OF DOING!!!
Dean came off like a pretentious ass who couldn’t be bothered and proved he either didn’t know the answer or didn’t care. Jon Stewart got under his skin by making fun of him for losing to Kerry in the primaries in 2004, but ruffled his feathers. Dean used his interview time not to build up his own party or to answer excellent questions (like how super delegates were chosen), but to attack Republicans, make fun of George Bush, and patronizing Jon Stewart. Jon Stewart himself does all of these things, but is much better at it, and interviewing yourself only works if you’re Stephen Colbert.
Howard Dean, you have been added to my enemies list. The only surprise is that you weren’t there already.
Alex Rodriguez, you are no longer my enemy. I actually feel sorry for you for the NY press constantly attacking you for not being Derek Jeter. How dare you be better than Jeter in every conceivable way! I guess it’s understandable, since your line in the post season is .309/.377/.469 rather than Jeter’s line of 279/.361/.483. After all, the only real difference is that he has a high slugging percentage and you hit a few more singles… oh, wait. I got those confused. My mistake. A-Rod is the best player in the American League. Period. End of discussion. Derek Jeter is a fine, Hall-of-Fame worthy shortstop. A-Rod has a chance to become the best player in major league history until Albert Pujols catches up. He’s also apparently a masochist who enjoys criticism.
