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Bill Maher

Bill Maher

Posted: October 22, 2010 06:54 PM

New Rule: Christine O'Donnell has to stop saying, "I'm you" in her campaign ads. It doesn't get truer the more you say it. Because it's not a spell. And also because a recent poll by Harvard confirms that my views are actually more aligned with America's views than are Christine's or Sarah Palin's or Carl Paladino's or any of the other nuts that spilled out of the nut bag this year.

When I hear Christine O'Donnell say "I'm you" I take it personally, because I think back to how our love-making was so raw and powerful it was hard to know where my body ended and hers began, but if I were you, I'd really want her to stop saying she was you. Eighty-six percent of Tea-baggers think climate change is a hoax -- that's not you! Tea Partiers want to repeal the health care law, but two thirds of AMERICANS either like it or want it to go further. Fifty-nine percent of AMERICANS support gay marriage and civil unions. The Tea Partiers support traditional gender roles, where men are in charge, like Glenn Beck, and women are soft and emotionally fragile, with spooky mood swings, like Glenn Beck. Six in ten Americans think illegal Mexicans should have a path to citizenship and be allowed to stay here. And the other four in ten are illegal Mexicans.

Now, I know that you Tea-baggers at home are already blogging, "If Americans are like you, Bill, then how come the Republicans are going to take over the Congress?" First of all, thank you for watching my show, I know there's wrestling on another channel. And second, to answer your question, the Democrats will lose because A) they don't brag about their achievements, and B) they never get it that these days you have to sum up your message in one succinct phrase, like "We'll cut your taxes," or "Here's a photo of my penis."

Which brings me to the one succinct phrase that could keep the Democrats in power in 2012: "We'll legalize pot." I'm not saying this just to get cheap applause. I'm saying it because reliable surveys tell us that there's only one thing that will rouse our precious youth to the polls the way Jackass in 3D got them out to the theaters, and that's pot. It's the unwritten second half of Obama's slogan. "Yes We Can...Get High at the Mall."

In the legalization of marijuana, the Democrats finally could have something they've always wanted: a wedge issue. Remember wedge issues? Things like gay marriage and prayer in school and other bullshit that Republicans used for years to get hillbillies to the polls? That's how Bush got elected in 2004 -- Karl Rove put gay marriage on the ballot in eleven key states, knowing that all the Christian shit-kickers would come out against boys kissing and stick around to pull the lever for Bungles the Clown.

Nationwide, young people 18-29 are expected to make up just six percent of those voting in the midterms. Six percent! I've seen more young people than that at Larry King's canasta parties. But here in California, where Proposition 19 on the ballot would legalize weed, the kids are expected to make up twelve percent of the voters. Still pathetic: but to go from six percent to twelve percent, that's...well, I'm a little stoned right now, but a lot.

Bill Maher is the host of HBO's Real Time with Bill Maher.

 

Follow Bill Maher on Twitter: www.twitter.com/billmaher

 
 
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
MNJim
Bio doesn't meet the guidelines
01:55 PM on 10/25/2010
Man....using pot as a wedge issue is actually "una idea brillante", as we used to say en La Costa del Sol and also in Minneapolis.
01:04 PM on 10/25/2010
I publish a blog ... the Voice of Moderation ... www.tvom.blogspot.com. Well, I'm so fed up with the politicians and the media organizations that I have filmed a video blog on YouTube. ... FOR INDEPENDENT VOTERS ONLY...STUPID IS AS STUPID DOES . It lasts a touch under 10 minutes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=csY7AImB3I4

If you decide to watch it, and like it, even if you don't agree with all of it , forward it to anyone you care to, preferrably someone who plans to vote and might appreciate some sanity and encouragement to take on the dangerous and loonies.
11:45 AM on 10/25/2010
With the 14 people massacre in TJ yesterday, we could use this CA. prop 19 right now to take some of what is supplying these cartels with product to sell to the state.

The only negative thing to say about the legalization, is longer lines in the Taco Bell 24 hour drive-thru at 3am when they have a 2 person staff manning the boil-in-a-bag beef. DAMN IT!!!
09:31 PM on 10/26/2010
but think of the job creation. Taco Bell would need to beef up their staff.
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06:30 AM on 10/29/2010
Except that driving around high is still going to against the law dude.
11:07 AM on 10/25/2010
The reason they dont do it is because even if you get 12 percent out to vote, that still wont make up for the older folk (about 65+% of whom vote), some of whom are still brainwashed with "reefer madness," and might even push some Democratic voters over to the Republicans.
If you really want to get it done, I think you're going to have to add an additional measure that says all tax revenue on legal marijuana sales will go towards additional Social Security spending or something.
11:56 AM on 10/25/2010
I follow your logic, but it doesn't take into account that seniors are coming out to vote anyway, with or without pot on the ballot. Maher's argument was to put the wedge issue on the ballot to increase the youth vote, not necessarily to pass the initiative.
01:49 PM on 10/25/2010
I honestly think he was serious to both points.. To get the young voters out & to pass the initiative!!! Both needs to happen anyway... Its killing two birds with one stone
12:55 AM on 10/26/2010
Well, many of us stodgy old folks are boomers who reminisce about the dark times of paraquat (sp). I don't get high (it doesn't make me high; it makes me paranoid and sad) but I am convinced that MJ is a safer, less habit forming, more effective pain killer than vicodin or the other opiates or pseudo-opiates commonly prescribed. How many arthritic baby-boomers and their parents are popping the vikes throughout the day and DRIVING?
10:13 AM on 10/25/2010
I think there was a mirror on the camera when she taped that spot.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Hypocrites are Watching
If I agreed with you we’d both be wrong.
09:42 AM on 10/25/2010
can I get a HELL YEA!!!?
01:47 PM on 10/25/2010
HELL YEAH!!!
lastpost
see biography
08:23 AM on 10/25/2010
“New Rule: Christine O'Donnell has to stop saying, "I'm you" in her campaign adsâ€.
and start saying “I’m you-sless…â€

"We'll legalize pot."
It won’t solve our problems. But you’ll feel less inclined to care about it.

“I'm a little stoned right nowâ€
Nice of you to admit as much, Bill. Since I didn’t want to be the first to draw attention to it.
11:26 AM on 10/25/2010
good one
04:29 AM on 10/25/2010
Parse "I'm You". What does that mean?

O'Donnell is about as far from "me", my ideals, aspirations, standards, goals, my values ... as would be a space alien or a snail. She is *not* me, nor I hope, is she mainstream America, at least not after the hyperbole and hate die down in the post-coital pensiveness that will surely follow November 2nd when we realize that we've failed to make choices that would keep us on a rational course as a Country. O'Donnell is not me, nor you either; not if you care about our future.

This thread gives me an idea. How about fixing her up with Levi and having them both on the Bill Maher show? It would be good for Levi because he'd have a chance to get even (in virtual reality) with Christine's look-alike, his almost-mother-in-law, and it would be good for Pristine Christine, 'cause she never met a Johnson she didn't like, or media exposure she didn't welcome.

The devil made me say that. It wasn't "me", it was her. We're all part of this really sinister, multiple-personality thing.

I'm you, you're me, we're each other, your aunt might be your uncle, Moses might be Sasquatch and we're all mixed up aren't we ... ? Where is this in the First Amendment anyway? High-five your team and have a happy life.

Just don't mess with mine.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Sol76
03:19 AM on 10/25/2010
New Rule: get someone to check that your podcast can be downloaded on iTunes and that it is not missing bits of audio like the episode from two Fridays ago. Despite the technical difficulties, I still look forward to the podcast every week. Thank you Bill for your astute commentary, funny jokes and Christine O'Donnell (who is not a witch).
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
TeraWatt60
Cogito Ergo Sum
12:44 AM on 10/25/2010
Christine O'Donnell should be sued for saying "I'm you"... she flatters herself to think of herself as anything but an air-head with phony "credentials" supplied by some "think tank" that encourages anything but thinking, and that such an appalling example of willful ignorance, religiosity and big.otry as herself is anything but the dregs of what it means to be human much less American
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Sol76
03:52 AM on 10/25/2010
Yes but is it even possible to sue yourself? You saw the ad; she is not a witch, she is you.
09:02 AM on 10/25/2010
I think you could get her for defamation of character!
11:32 PM on 10/24/2010
Hey, I resemble that remark!
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02:23 AM on 10/25/2010
Great strategy brother. Get the population stoned so that they won't be able to think for themselves any longer. That's sure to get them to vote for the democrats. Stoned idiots for Obama.
11:05 AM on 10/25/2010
You are aware that there are lawyers, politicians, doctors, civic leaders, etc. that smoke pot, right? The stoned slacker cliche is so overused I'm surprised it's still around. I guess it's hard to let go of stereotypes.
schatsie
banks are more dangerous than standing armies
11:06 PM on 10/24/2010
Early voting in Maryland, so I hope everybody gets out there and votes and Remember Not Voting IS A VOTE FOR Republicans...who will never legalize pot because they are making tooooo much money off of it...
10:28 PM on 10/24/2010
If the legal marijuana initiative got backing from the Democrats, young voter turn-out would sky rocket in favor of the Democrats.

I'm really surprised the Frito-Lay company stands mute on the issue. You'd think they would invest a little money in that. It'd be a smart business move.
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M Bernard Ferrell
11:32 AM on 10/25/2010
gotta love Munchie jokes..
06:52 PM on 10/25/2010
They just never get stale, kinda like Twinkies.
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
TheWanderer
Above us only sky
10:18 PM on 10/24/2010
If Christine O'Donnell is me, she needs a shave
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
TeraWatt60
Cogito Ergo Sum
01:03 AM on 10/25/2010
If Christine O'Donnell is me not only does she need a shave but she needs to re-evaluate her blue nosed to the point of perverted view of mastur.bation
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
SPYWITNESS
purple truth-trader
03:13 PM on 10/25/2010
Ooooohh, maybe she has already- nothing to get in the way in case she changes her mind on masturbation...
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sorrytobeakansan
Radical Moderate
10:17 PM on 10/24/2010
Bill is doing the good work of pi$$ing off the religious right. For that I say God bless him.