I am the Walrus...or, John Bolton's Adventures with the Daily Show

I was SHOCKED when John Steward announced John Bolton as the guest tonight (3/20).

For those of you who aren't familiar with John Bolton (or for those who tried to forget), here is the quick rundown. He has been a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, a right-wing think tank (who recently offered $10,000 to any scientist willing to write a paper critical of the UN study on climate change.), he has been a Department of justice employee under Regan, successfully fighting off questioning on illegal drug fighting measures and the Iran contra affair. Bolton has opposed upholding the Biological weapons convention (due to it allowing inspections of US sites, even though the US claims it hasn't used these weapons since 1969), he has also cooked the books so to speak on WMD's, having others or himself accuse many countries of having them, including Iraq. Finally, he was nominated for US ambassador to the United Nations, which the Democrats refused to allow, but why? He has been very critical of the UN, claiming it is irrelevant, needs to be done away with, so on and so forth. Naturally he is the type of man you want to represent you in that body. In a recess appointment, Bush installed him at his UN post, where Bolton continues to anger many. His rudeness and pushing of Bush policy made him a loathed individual by many in the UN. Finally, his short term came to an end, and Bush was forced to nominate someone else, seeing that the Dems would not back down on him.

So here we are, Stewart has made tons of jokes about the guy, called him out by jokes many times, and now here he is. I expected him to basically ask WTF, but then I forget John Stewart is a class act. He reminded the audience to be hospitable, and to not treat him poorly. Then when Bolton came out, they engaged in a civil debate. No name calling, no screaming, cutting each other off, not even a sarcastic barb. Here sat two of the most polar opposite individuals on policy stances that the world has seen, and they are acting, well, human. On almost every point, from the Attorney General, to Bush surrounding himself with like minded people, to the UN, they disagreed. One would make a point, the other would disagree and explain why. They ended on good terms with a handshake, as opposed to something like say Robert Novack storming out and swearing on live TV. Why was this debate so enthralling?

Just a few hours earlier, O'Reilly had on the Mayor of Salt Lake City to discuss his call for the impeachment of the president. O'reilly cut him off several times, called him a kook, and then intimidated him by getting louder and reminding him of how his call for impeachment could hurt this country's standing. When called on the name calling, Bill said "your ideas are kookie". This was classic because then a minute latter the mayor accused him again of name calling, to which O'reilly replied "I Called your ideas kookie." Nice save Bill.

There it is, two views, one from a show on a news channel, which should give us news, and perspective, to help us decide ourselves. The other was from a comedy channel, where you get to watch a million reruns of chappelles show and stand up from sinbad. You would expect the yelling and name calling to be some sort of parody, a send up of public officials, while the high minded respectful debate would be on the news channel. You could, but you would be wrong.