Imperial City, Washington D.C., whatever.
Make no mistake, Oprah Winfrey is supporting the rally. Two weeks ago, she surprised members of the studio audience at “The Daily Show” by announcing she will send them all to Washington.
Maybe she knows something the rest of us don’t.
Meanwhile, we can surely be excused if our imaginations run wild. Especially for the biggest fans of Stewart and Colbert, can the rally we anticipate possibly be matched by what they have in store? They haven’t promised us the moon — they haven’t promised us anything beyond generalities — but in lieu of other promises, the moon is what we expect. Or at least Lady Gaga and Desmond Tutu.
Come on. It’s all in good fun. Just a bunch of people attempting to restore some sanity to the fevered national political debate hijacked by evil extremists.
I do have some questions for the CBz readership, though:
(1) Will Twitter shut-down that day as twittering Obamatrons flood the system with gentle observations?
(2) Will the alphabet run out of the letters T, E, A, B, G or R?
(3) Will clouds of smug blot out the sun?
(4) Will there be extra aid stations to tend to all the broken arms injured from patting oneself on the back?
(5) Will Lady Gaga be there?
These are serious times people. And serious times call for serious rallies. Run by serious people. Generally sympathetic to a Very Serious Political Party.
Update: Last bit of the post edited slightly for “aesthetic” reasons. Because I felt like it.
Second update: Just watched the following video of Smugapalooza (link via Instapundit). Apparently, misspelling words invalidates an argument so I made sure to change “high jack” to “hijack.” Any other mistakes of note? How embarrassing. Except, I’m not embarrassed. Well, for me. Nice video of the March To Restore My Inflated Self-Esteem. I’m in love with myself….
And then, there’s this:
Stewart’s questioning did lead to a lighter moment on the Comedy Central show, though. Asked why former Clinton Treasury Secretary Larry Summers was appointed one of Obama’s chief economists in what was billed as a “change” administration, Obama was defensive.
“Larry Summers did a heck of a job,” the president said in a very serious tone.
But the audience quickly began to laugh, clearly remembering George W. Bush’s famous, “Brownie, you’re doing a heck of a job,” line to former FEMA chief Michael Brown during the Hurricane Katrina crisis.
Stewart interjected: “You don’t want to use that phrase, dude.”
Obama smiled and added, “pun intended.”
Huh?
From Stewart’s interview with the President on The Daily Show.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_upshot/20101028/el_yblog_upshot/obama-makes-historic-appearance-on-daily-show
– Madhu
Many of us have another brewing concern: Despite Stewart’s insistence to the contrary, are he and Colbert perilously straying from illuminative mockery into full-blown political activism?
No. They are weather vanes and herd-followers rather than leaders or serious advocates. They are tacitly acknowledging the significance of the tea parties and trying to surf the wave.
Give Obama a few months and he will start claiming to have invented the tea parties himself.
Insightful comment, Jonathan. Ha, I bet he will start claiming to have invented the tea parties himself. Thomas Friedman sort of did that recently. Claiming he knew what the tea parties should REALLY be about. Very funny.
– Madhu
Jerry Brown, in 1978, opposed Prop 13 until it passed and then claimed credit for it. Now we are to get another dose of him unless Meg can save us.
Brown is a soulless cardboard cutout. My apologies for insulting compressed paper products, with this unflattering comparison.
Aside from the circus freak performance by the audience as the various Leftist groups gather; which if viewed on TV will probably actually hurt the Democrats, and the reprise of the trashing of the Mall during the Inauguration that is sure to happen; there is another factor. The Left has its collective knickers in several square knots about the Citizens United decision that partially loosened government controls on political speech. To them, evil corporations who are at the mercy of the government, having anything to say about the government that since January 2009 has been trying to destroy the economy is right up there with Original Sin. Yet, if as expected this becomes a rally to try to motivate [only] the Democrat vote turnout; how is this any different from an in-kind campaign contribution worth literally millions by Comedy Central and its parent corporations Viacom and CBS?
The Restoring Honor Rally and the TEA Party rallies were not corporate funded. Unlike Stewart’s affair, they did not pay people to show up, did not pay the way of the participants. These were out of pocket expenses for those who came, and in the case of the Restoring Honor Rally, they dug deep and contributed to disabled SpecOp vets.
Of course, to Mr. Stewart, they have free speech for their side. It is just the other side’s corporations that have to be silenced.
Subotai Bahadur
Thanks for the comments everybody (and thanks Jonathan for changing some of the formatting.)
People seemed orderly and neat from the reports. They also seemed like they stepped off the pages of Stuff White People Like. I doubt the event changed any minds or will have an impact in the way that the Glenn Beck rally startled people into realizing the Tea Parties are a political force.
The rally seemed to be pretty much what you would expect from a Colbert/Stewart crowd and it is D.C. so, of course, you can scrounge up a bunch of smug there (apologies to all my D.C. friends, but you know what I mean. :) Gentle teasing friends, gentle teasing…. )
– Madhu