The Daily Show on Wednesday was brilliant. Jon Stewart and his team did a fantastic job of letting Karl Rove, Bill O’Reilly, Dick Morris, and Nancy Pfotenhauer demonstrate their extreme hypocrisy by playing recent videos of them completely contradicting videos of them from the last few months to a year ago. Palin provides a message for Clinton on sexism that she should take to heart herself.
Rove gushes about Palin’s great experience as being the mayor of the second largest city in Alaska. But when Obama was considering Tom Kaine, Rove ridiculed Kaine’s experience as the mayor of such a small city. Let’s see, Richmond, Virginia, has a population of over 200,000. Wasilla, Alaska, comes in at 9,000. Hmmm, so being the mayor of a city of 200,000 counts for almost nothing, but being mayor of a tiny remote village makes you ready to be Vice President. Rove belittles Kaine’s having only been Lieutenant Governor followed by three years as Governor, but lauds Palin’s two years as Governor. He claims a selection of a person with only Kaine’s experience would mean Obama isn’t concerned about whether his VP is capable of being the President. Somebody send that man a calculator, because Rove needs to run the numbers to find out that by his own standards, McCain made a far worse selection than the person Obama passed over.
Bill O’Reilly gets all sensitive saying that Bristol’s pregnancy, like any other teen pregnancy, should remain a private issue as long as American taxpayers don’t have to support the cost. But then here’s some video of him ripping into Jamie Lynn Spear’s parents and calling them pinheads for letting her get pregnant. No way American taxpayers paid for that pregnancy. Wow, double standards from O’Reilly? Never expected to see that happen.
Next up, Dick Morris claims that criticism of Palin is “deep sexism” and shouldn’t be tolerated. But what about when Hillary Clinton was under attack? Hmm, I think I transcribed it right when he said, “When a woman wants to be President, she shouldn’t complain based on gender.” He says a lot worse, too. Maybe there are special rules for VPs. Jon nails it on the head when describing Morris, though.
Nancy Pfotenhauer, McCain’s senior policy advisor, attacks Clinton for “playing the gender card”, acting like it is an affront to all women. But, then Palin shows up and suddenly Pfotenhauer is pulling a gender card out of every sleeve. Her Palin message seems to be 1) Play the gender card 2) Whine about sexist attacks. Pfotenhauer claims the attacks on Palin are one of the most outrageous examples of double standards she’s ever seen. Jon’s got some footage she needs to see.
Then we get some nice video of Palin attacking Clinton for complaining about sexist attacks, saying “work harder, prove yourself to an even greater degree, …” Hey, before you complain any more about sexist treatment of yourself, listen to your own recorded statements. And while you’re at it, make sure Nancy and Dick listen in, too. And stop flip-flopping on the bridge issue. Just admit you once supported it, but reserve the right to get smarter and change your mind. Unlike the current President who reserves the right to stick to stupid decisions, no matter how overwhelmingly the arguments build against them. Except, of course, when he regularly switches to worse decisions, cutting off his nose to spite his face.