from Comedy Central/Rachel Sklar
After last night's "Daily Show," I think it is fair to say that Jon Stewart hates President Bush. There's no mistaking the biting, angry tone behind the jocularity in his segment on Bush's press conference, and this soundbite in particular: "Nobody likes to see innocent people die." Said Stewart: "And there was more empathy where that came from":
"I hear a lot of talk about civil war, I'm concerned about that, of course..."
"The damage to innocent life, which bothers me...."
"Obvoiusly I wish that the violence would go down...but wars are not a time of joy."
Deadpanned Stewart: "You'll see more of those soundbites and many others in the president's new series of public service announcements: 'The Least You Can Feel.'" Amid the audience applause, he said in his best Bush impression: "Nobody likes to see innocent people die. From what I'm told." Ouch. It's not a new theme for Stewart, who memorably excoriated Bush over the stem cell veto last month, parsing through his statements about how precious was human life...and then intercutting with footage where he glibly guesstimates dead Iraqi civilians as "Umm. I would say 30,000 more or less." I repeat, ouch.
And then, captured in all its raw-video-feed glory, was this segment:
Bush (to reporter, in midst of answering question): ...what did Iraq have to do with what?
Q. The attack on the World Trade Center.
Bush: Nothing!
This is what The Daily Show does: It catches them lying, and doesn't let them forget it. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the news. And there's nothing fake about it.
(By the way, the crowd went wild after that clip.)
Also of note: "Senior Black Correspondent" Larry Wilmore on George Allen's "Macaca" comment and Tony Snow's "tar baby" reference: "We can do better...how are we supposed to be pissed off about 'macaca'? That's weak!" Great archival Strom Thurmond footage. Quoth Wilmore: "Now that's a racist mother[bleep]er
Meanwhile, Colbert had on Paul Krugman ("It is go time, Beardy"), who got on the topic of the Bush administration lying and specifically the stubborn assertion that there were links between Iraq and 9/11: "Yeah...there are links between me and Jay-Z too, if you follow enough chains." Beardy is so hip! Best line is Colbert's though: "Well, if they lied us into Iraq...why can't they just lie us out of Iraq?" Oh, if it were that easy.
NB: Per our post yesterday, Colbert's fans have racked up 17,231,724 votes for that Hungarian bridge. Now that's some serious web mojo.
