Last night, Jon Stewart covered Vladimir Putin's "in another world" press conference, but mostly focused on the right-wing's unhinged reaction to Putin, as opposed to how they treat Obama.
I'll tell ya, the weirdest thing about this isn't Putin invading Ukraine. You expect a crazy guy to act crazy. The weirdest thing is seeing conservatives in our country point at the crazy guy and go, "Yeah, I'll have what they're having."
Video and full transcript below the fold.
While it has been quite an enlightening conversation with Vladimir Putin, and while President Putin seems to be channeling Jon Lovitz's character from SNL — "Yeah, yeah, Crimea, yeah. Yeah, yeah, we're not in Crimea, that's the ticket! Yeah." — perhaps there's something else going on here.
ANDREA MITCHELL (3/3/2014): Germany's Angela Merkel told President Obama Sunday night that after speaking to Putin, she didn't think he was in touch with reality, saying Putin was "in another world".
And that brings us to the second portion of our headline. Much of the world now sees Putin for what he is — a semi-delusional autocrat who views the dissolution of the Soviet Union as one of the greatest tragedies of the late 20th century, and has confused his own geopolitical propaganda for reality. I mean, who would be fooled by this guy's bullshit?
RALPH PETERS (3/4/2014): Russia has a real leader. ... And our President just is... he's incapable and unwilling to lead.
BILL O'REILLY (3/4/2014): In a way, you gotta hand it to Putin. He knows the West is weak.
RUDY GIULIANI (3/3/2014): Putin decides what he wants to do, and he does it in half a day. ... He makes a decision, and he executes it, quickly. Then everybody reacts. That's what you call a leader.
THAT'S NOT WHAT YOU CALL A LEADER!!! Makes a quick decision and everybody reacts? That's what you call a toddler!
(massive audience cheering and applause)
Honestly! And I'll tell ya, the weirdest thing about this isn't Putin invading Ukraine. You expect a crazy guy to act crazy. The weirdest thing is seeing conservatives in our country point at the crazy guy and go, "Yeah, I'll have what they're having."
ERIC BOLLING (3/4/2014): Putin likes to hang out with his shirt off. Obama wears mom jeans. Putin tells the West, "If you mess with me, I'll kill you all."
SARAH PALIN (3/3/2014): People are looking at Putin as one who wrestles bears and drills for oil. They look at our President as one who wears mom jeans and equivocates.
CHARLES PAYNE (3/4/2014): This is a guy that wrestles tigers while the President wears mom pants!
What a great talking point that "mom jeans" thing turned out to be! Here's the thing you gotta remember. Putin doesn't actually wrestle bears and tigers. That's propaganda! He did once shoot a tiger, but only after that tiger had been pre-tranquilized and trapped in a snare for him. For God's sakes, how, in one 24-hour news cycle, do you guys upgrade Putin from wrestling bears to tigers, anyhow? By tomorrow, it'll be Putin once smacked the teeth out of a great white shark and made it blow him, while Barack Obama just sat there, wistfully, wearing Capri pants and a baby bonnet.
(audience laughter)
Look, you gotta admit there's something ridiculous about a middle-aged world leader riding around shirtless on a horse like Conan the Barbarian after a dozen donuts. Who thinks this looks good?
SEAN HANNITY (3/5/2014): It's like they want Obama to seem weak to the Russian people, that they don't respect weakness. ... There you got Putin, big, strong, muscular, on a horse.
(Jon facepalms)
Big, strong, muscular, on a horse? That's an image that looks like it should be airbrushed onto the side of a van in a New Jersey rest area.
(audience laughter)
I've been to that rest area. It's nice.
But fine, you want Obama to be more like Putin. How would you feel if Obama did act a bit more authoritarian?
GRETA VAN SUSTEREN (1/14/2014): Did President Obama miss the class about the three equal branches of government?
JON SCOTT (2/14/2014): Doesn't he act more like a king than a president?
JAY SEKULOW (6/18/2012): He's not the king!
HARRY ALFORD (2/27/2013): Emperor Obama does what he wants to do.
SEAN HANNITY (2/11/2013): An imperial president shredding the Constitution.
ERIC BOLLING (8/27/2012): He gutted the Constitution with Obamacare.
FRANK LUNTZ (12/2/2010): ... shoved down the throats of the American people ...
MONICA CROWLEY (2/8/2012): That's a form of tyranny.
FOX NEWS GUEST (2/18/2014): Those are the actions of a dictator.
JASON MATTERA (10/4/2013): Barack Obama needs to be reminded that he is not a dictator.
Hmm... fascinating. Let me see if I have this straight. Barack Obama is a weak, mom jeans-wearing DICTATOR-KING!!! Weak mom jean tyrants are the worst tyrants of all! (wild audience cheering and applause)
What the hell is wrong with these people? What happened to these people as children that has enabled this love-hate relationship with authoritarian figures and the inherent cognitive dissonance that goes along with such a schism? You know what I'm talking about, Fox contributor Ralph Peters.
RALPH PETERS (3/4/2014): You know, it's funny, Putin actually reminds me in a peculiar way of my mother.
(shocked audience laughter)
Go on....
RALPH PETERS (3/4/2014): My mother has a brilliant uncanny ability to meet someone, and within five minutes, she can identify their weakness. She knows their weak point.
(wild audience laughter and applause)
Well, who's weak now, mother?
(Psycho music)
We'll be right back.
Then in another must-see clip, Aasif Mandvi then went with Remote Area Medical to tour an area devastated by
lack of proper health care — Knoxville, Tennessee.
Meanwhile, Stephen covered the Massachusetts court case where it was ruled that
taking upskirt photos is legal, before moving on to cover
Women's History Month.
Stephen then noted that the song "Happy Birthday" turns 90, but you still cannot sing it on TV because Warner Music still
holds the copyright to it, prompting Stephen to create his OWN birthday anthem.
Stephen talked with Chicago artist
Theaster Gates, and Jon talked with political science professor
Kimberly Marten about the situation in Russia and Ukraine, which went long. Here's the unedited interview in two parts.
Part 1
Part 2
