Daily Show billboard welcoming Republicans to their convention in the Twin Cities

Last week, the New York Times ran a giant article on The Daily Show’s Jon Stewart under the banner headline “Is John Stewart the Most Trusted Man in America?”. While some may say that a comedian hosting a fake news show on basic cable can’t possibly be that influential, The Times backed it up with some research:

When Americans were asked in a 2007 poll by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press to name the journalist they most admired, Mr. Stewart, the fake news anchor, came in at No. 4, tied with the real news anchors Brian Williams and Tom Brokaw of NBC, Dan Rather of CBS and Anderson Cooper of CNN. And a study this year from the center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism concluded that “ ‘The Daily Show’ is clearly impacting American dialogue” and “getting people to think critically about the public square.”

Stewart is in Denver this week for the Democratic National Convention (he’ll be in the Minnesota next week for the Republicans) and sat down for a breakfast on Monday with many important members of the television and print media for a round table interview and preceded to criticize basically everyone in the room:

Comedian Jon Stewart had some very unfunny words for the media on Monday, calling cable news networks “a giant monster” and urging newspaper reporters not to fall prey to the 24-hour news cycle.

He urged the print media not to buy into television and campaign spin and to dig deep into stories, even if it means burning bridges with sources and not giving readers exactly what they want. “I think my audience would like to see a naked woman smoking crack… but you’ve got to draw the line,” he said.

He called Fox News’ fake news coverage a “the biggest ‘fuck you’ to people with brains.”

And the best part is they actually listen because they understand his influence almost more than he does. They were watching three years ago when he almost single handedly caused the cancellation of CNN’s Crossfire. He famously went on the show for what the producers thought would be a funny, light hearted interview. Instead, he proclaimed Crossfire was “bad” and “hurting America” and calling the hosts (to their faces!) “partisan hacks” in a sarcastic tone that denoted an underlying seriousness. When the show was axed three months later, CNN chief executive Jonathan Klien commented on the cancellation:

“I guess I come down more firmly in the Jon Stewart camp.”

Here’s the original video which includes some hilarious insults and debate with host Tucker Carlson which ended with Stewart calling him a “dick” on national television:

This week Stewart and the Daily Show continued its assault on the mainstream media tackling stories with a bluntness that no one else does. While many in cable television and print write and report with concern that Clinton diehards who say they will vote for John McCain are a thorn in the side of Barack Obama, Stewart and his team of “reporters” speak the actual truth: those people are just fucking nuts. Watch:

And that was just the first night. They still have three more to go and then they’re off the Minnesota where their targets have been fairly warned by the incoming billboard that they are probably in deep, deep trouble.

In fact, the Vice Presidential debate will probably be one of the highlights of the remainder of the campaign because Biden has the potential to all out embarrass whoever the poor Republican nominee is, with his breadth of knowledge and ability to completely dismantle his adversary’s arguments.

Two great videos show Joe at his best, ridiculing Rudy Guiliani during the Democratic Primary.

This first one, the more famous of the two, shows Biden savagely ripping Guiliani’s penchant for weaving in a reference to 9/11 no matter what he’s talking about:

This one, though, is my favorite. After his “noun, verb, and 9/11″ quip made headlines, Biden threw out this gem while talking to reporters during his short lived campaign in Iowa. The appropriate condescension in his voice is biting, but the look on his face after he says it in the last half second of the video is absolutely priceless:

That’s the reason virtually every Democrat was rooting for Biden in these final days, and why Republicans supporting John McCain were hoping for anyone else, as MSNBC’s First Read explains:

“On the Democratic side, it was a collective ‘phew.’ As the days got nearer for the pick, it was hard to find a Democrat — even savvy Clintonites — who weren’t hoping it would be Biden. Only the most strident Hillary supporters appear to be upset this morning. On the GOP side, the sound you heard was disappointed silence. Of everyone on the short list, the candidate many Republicans least wanted to see Obama pick was Biden.”

(videos via dailykos)

BARACK OBAMA
1. Ready or Not Fugees
2. What’s Going On Marvin Gaye
3. I’m On Fire Bruce Spingsteen
4. Gimme Shelter Rolling Stones
5. Sinnerman Nina Simone
6. Touch the Sky Kanye West
7. You’d Be So Easy to Love Frank Sinatra
8. Think Aretha Franklin
9. City of Blinding Lights U2
10. Yes We Can

JOHN McCAIN
1. Dancing Queen ABBA
2. Blue Bayou Roy Orbison
3. Take a Chance On Me ABBA
4. If We MakeIt Through December Merle Haggard
5. As Time Goes By Dooley Wilson
6. Good Vibrations The Beach Boys
7. What A Wonderful World Louis Armstrong
8. I’ve Got You Under My Skin Frank Sinatra
9. Sweet Caroline Neil Diamond
10. Smoke Gets In Your Eyes The Platters

Obama proves to be cool (the Fugees), fresh (Kanye), classy (Sinatra), and arguably the greatest of all time (Gimme Shelter). Not to mention he just has overall good taste (I’m On Fire, Marvin Gaye in general), but his own tribute for Song #10? That’s a little arrogant.

McCain proves to be cheesy (ABBA? Twice!?), corny (Neil Diamond), and really, really old (Song #2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 10).

Honestly, there really is no older sounding name in the History of American Music than Merle Haggard. Someone should have told him not to put that on his list.

Although Presidential Primary season is still months away, the increasing rottenness of John McCain’s conduct is becoming clearer and clearer with each passing day.

The same principled, outside-the-party line mentality that drew him to independent voters in 2000 Presidential race has long passed, replaced with a moldy stench of a stereotype politician that is willing to sell himself piece by piece for a potential bump in his final vote tally. Even worse, he is selling himself to anyone, as long as they can deliver.

It seems not to bother him that he is now hitching his wagon to the falling star of George Bush. The same man, who not only has become the least popular president since Nixon, but whose 2000 primary campaign smeared McCain unmercifully with false charges. According to the Boston Globe, in 2000, “Bush’s campaign strategists, including Karl Rove, devised a push poll against John McCain. South Carolina voters were asked ‘Would you be more likely or less likely to vote for John McCain for president if you knew he had fathered an illegitimate black child?’ They had no interest in the actual percentages in the poll, the goal was to suggest that [McCain had a black child]. This was particularly vicious since McCain was campaigning with his adopted [dark skinned] Bangladeshi daughter.”

Putting aside the personal attacks, McCain now unwaveringly sticks up for the president. Even with Americans dying because of a war brought about by deceit and run with incompetence of historic proportions, McCain will not blame Bush. He somehow thinks the lonely 30% who still support George Bush’s policies will help him in the Republican primaries.

The vigor in John McCain’s voice in 2000 as he defended himself against then Governer Bush’s attacks is a far cry from what you will hear from him these days. Now he talks as if the President has a knife to his back forcing him to say in now his familiar unconvincing monotone: “I support George Bush and the Iraq War.”

It also apparently doesn’t matter if you are a member religious right who spews hate filled diatribes damning homosexuals and anyone who is pro-choice, like Jerry Falwell. He can still have a piece John McCain even though McCain once called Falwell “an agent of intolerance” for his extreme, hateful views and condemned political “pandering” to the religious right. Now McCain can be seen chitchatting onstage with Falwell before giving a speech at Falwell’s own Liberty University. Trying to fully capitalize on tactics he once shunned, he also has expanded his commencement address RSVPs to include schools like the Discovery that teach creationism instead of evolution.

And as McCain proved last week, even his signature political issue, campaign finance reform, cannot escape his recent hypocrisy.

The Senator from Arizona will even sellout to the financer of a group McCain himself took to court two years ago because “it was trying to ‘evade and violate’ new campaign laws with voter ads ahead of the midterm elections.” That man, A. Jerrold Perenchio, is new co-chairman of the Arizona Republican’s national finance committee.

According to the Washington Post, “McCain has embraced some of the same political-money figures, forces and tactics he pilloried during a 15-year crusade to reduce the influence of big donors, fundraisers and lobbyists in elections.”

And wouldn’t you know it: “That includes enlisting the support of Washington lobbyists as well as key players in the fundraising machine that helped President Bush defeat McCain in the 2000 Republican primaries.”

The list of backtracks and flip flops goes on and on and is lengthening virtually every day. The irony is that he could win in a landslide playing the same cards he couldn’t win with in 2000. It’s just too bad he seems to have folded those cards, along with his pride, a long time ago.