Stewart - O'Reilly - The Best Presidential Debate

You know something has changed when you see Bill O'Reilly chat with Jon Stewart.

His interview of Stephen Colbert a few weeks ago was about personal character but here, we've just witnessed the best debate of this election year.

You had all the ingredients for a good comedy : two talkative New-Yorkers, a short Jew and a tall, massive Irish guy, live on Comedy Central for The Daily Show. Jon even offered a Mr Snuggles anger management teddy bear to tame his guest, along with a large cup of warm chocolate sweetened with a handful of sugar cubes.

But here were also two smart and sharp people having a good and lively conversation, sailing well beyond the usual PC pond... and enjoying it. Of course, Bill O'Reilly's idea of "center right" America is not that Alabama where people routinely shoot Jonathan Stuart Leibowitzes on sight while enjoying weird "BBQ parties" (you wouldn't want to visit his "real" Amerika). And of course, Jon Stewart's definition of the American tradition goes beyond gay marriage.

This was a good debate. Exposing acute differences, but putting all fear aside and embracing mutual respect. Change has come to America, and it looks like peace.

The first post-Bush / Cheney era debate.


Part I (5.31 mn) - meet Mr Snuggles.



Part II (6.23 mn) - center, right, tradition.

McCain - Rice 2008

John McCain picked the one size fits all answer to Obama - Clinton : she is black and female, she enjoys youth and experience, she was in favor of the war in Iraq and fought against Rumsfeld...

So instead of 42's wife, we could have a Veep who happened to call 43 her "husband".

Too good to be true ?

Can somebody who trusts George W. Bush and whom George W. Bush trusts be one heartbeat away from the top job ? Her "Transformational Diplomacy" sounds great but includes such stances as "we don't want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud" or "punish France, ignore Germany, and forgive Russia".

This ticket is a pure marketing gimmick. Dems definitely should end their internal battles as soon as possible, and I keep checking every day the 2008 Democratic Convention Watch website : 25 superdelegates today, down from the upper 30s during the Wright controversy - go 'bama go (that's for Obama, not Condi's native state).

Red blogule to pro-life / pro-death pro-teges

How many black people among how many dead people down in the South ? Thousands ? Yet a fraction of the country cries over the death of one single individual in Arlington, VA. White supremacists and Christian fundamentalist expect a "good" successor to William Hubbs Rehnquist, praised by his November 2000 Protégé (and pro-life+pro-death-penalty pal*) King Dubya for "improving the delivery of justice for the American people".
John Roberts was not supposed to take the helm that soon but the US should be very careful who will replace Sandra Day O'Connor. Edith "Joy" Brown Clement, a woman from 'bama with a New Orleans pedigree, would be the perfect post-Katrina nominee but for his potential last shot and one year before key elections, W needs to send a much stronger message to his "base"**.
Besides, since she's still sitting in Louisiana, Brown may have a not so Clement word to say during the inquiry about Katrina's aftermath.

* "pro-life" people tend to be "pro-death", but there's nothing funny about it
** Speaking of which... Newsweek just published in their 20050901 edition the mild extract of my 20050708 blogule on London bombings I sent them : "President Bush keeps talking about good vs evil (...) - Tony Blair keeps talking about attacks against civilization... but such speeches are music to the ears of fundamentalists. What these leaders need to protect is not their own "way of life" but the basic rights of moderate majorities under the spell of extremist minorities."