For me, Jon Stewart has offered some of the most devastating reponses to right-wing craziness in this campaign season. Of course, his best ammunition is always reserved for the propagandists at FOX, who provide such an inviting target for mockery. We may be so used to his brilliant FOX takedowns, that we might not fully appreciate how insightful Stewart can be. On Monday, he really summed up 4 years of putrid histrionics and outright lies on FOX.
Unfortunately, as stupidly comedic as the FOX party line can seem, it isn't harmless. The Congressional conservatives have largely succeeded with 4 years of non-stop obstructionism and economic sabotage, as well as their efforts at union-busting and voter-suppression, in large measure because the've scared a lot of folks, and created a black, Democratic bogeyman.
That's why I hope this latest effort from Jon goes viral -- because, in a few short minutes, he managed to sum up the conservative attack line against the President and prove its worthlessness. He started the show by exposing the bogus meme about Obama's "not optimal" appearance on Stewart's program last week, but he broadened it out to a takedown of of 4 years of FOX's McCarthyite blather.
Join me below the squiggle for transcript and video....
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Jon Stewart: "It's clear now, that the right, over time, has developed Baracktose Intolerance.....Y'know, it seems like...It seems like it began in 2008"...
[
Roll clips of wingnuts doing their thing]
Sean Hannity: "Who is the real Barack Obama?"
Mary Matalin: "Obama is a big risk."
Michael Steele: "We don't know anything about Obama."
Sen. John McCain: "What does he plan for America?"
{Back to slack-jawed Stewart}
Stewart: "Y'know, old Ben-Kenobi asks a reasonable question...But, unfortunately, the only answer can be found on Bullsh*t Mountain....
A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away....Well, actually it's just FOX News headquarters over on 6th Avenue. It's not...it's not that far. 2008...Barack Obama was a new hope; the Empire was uneasy."
{Wingnut clip roll. Take 2}
Rep. Trent Franks: "If Mr. Obama should become President, I really believe it'll be hard to stop the economy from being socialized."
Rep. Steve King: "The Al-Qaeda and the radical Islamists and their supporters will be dancing in the streets."
"Dick" Morris: "I'll bet that this market drops significantly."
Newt Gingrich: "He's going to have an effort to curtail free speech for Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity."
Sen. McCain: "The rights of law-abiding gun-owners will be ar risk."
Mark Williams (ummm...who?): "Barack Obama wants to depopulate the countryside and make us ride around on bicycles."
That was a parade of utter "Bullsh*t," of course -- outrageous scare tactics that might have made Sen. Joe McCarthy blush. Nonetheless, some folks on the right might not realize that none of that has come to pass. So, Stewart brings it home, first mugging for the camera, and then looking at the stack of papers in his hand in his finest impression of a serious newsanchor, before blowing up the "Phantom Menace," thusly:
Stewart: "And while the economy is not yet socialized, Islamists burn effigies of Obama, the stock market doubled, Limbaugh and Hannity blather on, gun rights have actually expanded, and....cars are still legal, the point is...bbbbbbbuuubbbbbbb.... (Stewart does a little freak out, jumping out of his chair and waving at the camera a la Lewis Black.)
Stewart then shows that the scare tactics coming out of Bullsh*t Mountain didn't stop with Obama's election:
Stewart: "But, after Obama's inauguration, there was no time to evaluate failed predictions, because the Bullsh*t harvest of Obama's Presidency would wait for no man.
Steve Doocy: Barack Obama met with King Abdullah, and what did he do? He bowed."
Unknown voice: Free Obama phones., free Obama money..."
Stuart Varney: "Wealth redistribution."
Charles Payne: "$200 million dollars a day on that India trip."
The Donald Trump: "Why doesn't he show his birth certificate?"
Hannity: "We've got Acorn, we've got Alinsky, we've got community organization."
Unknown voice: "The rapper, Common."
Michelle Malkin: "Global apology tour."
Andrew Napolitano: "Death panels."
Unknown female FOX commentator: "Obama indoctrination."
Glenn Beck: "Obama-brand reparations."
Hannity: "Obama is destroying this country."
Unknown voice: "The mosque-ing of America."
"DICK" Morris: "We're establishing, literally, a command center for terrorism, right at the 9/11 site."
Stewart (with mock incredulity): "Literally? It is a literal command center...for terrorism...that we established...at the site of 9/11. Why would we do that? But, we did. Literally?
Who would do such a thing? Kill our grandmothers, brainwash our children, institute sharia law, bankrupt our country with 200 million dollar a day travel habits...?
Setting aside that President didn't actually do any of those things...why would the President do these things?"
[Cut back to the FOX parade of idiots]
Unknown FOX gal: "The President is a communist."
Beck: "This guy, I believe, is a racist."
Unknown bald guy FOXer: "I think he's a Marxist."
Gingrich: "He is a natural, secular European socialist."
Unknown: "I think he's pro-Islamist."
Unknown blond: "That is Mubarak Obama."
The parade goes on:
Montage of FOX personalities: "Hugo Chavez Obama....Robespierre, Castro and Mao...Lenin or Mussolini...Hitler...Hitler...Joseph Stalin, without the bloodshed..."
Stewart: "With all due respect, Joseph Stalin without the bloodshed? ...Really not the same Stalin. The bloodshed..was his thing. Without the bloodshed, he might as well be, I don't know...Gary Stalin...I...y'know...it's like, it's just like Scooby-Doo, but he can't talk or solve crimes...but then, he's just a dog with a snack habit."
4 more years? Hopefully, we will have some sanity, and a dose of reality, because we need it. We've got real problems, and we'll need some Republicans to work with Pres. Obama to
begin to tackle them.
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