Carter and Clinton, Kennedy and Maddow

Meh on Jon Stewart.

Mr. Stewart told his audience the show had secured the National Mall in Washington on Oct. 30 for what he called “The Rally to Restore Sanity.”
He later labeled it a “Million Moderate March.” The purpose, he said, is to counter what he called a minority of 15 percent or 20 percent of the country who have dominated the national political discussion with extreme rhetoric. He tarred both parties with that charge, mentioning both the attacks on the right against President Obama for being everything from a socialist to un-American and on the left against former President Bush for being a war criminal
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This is always a trap.  If you are Jon Stewart, you want to be reasonable, and satirically throw jabs at “both sides”.  In Stewart’s case, he ended up with egg on his face in having to backtrack on Breitbart’s “ACORN” video, after excoriating the media for not following up on it.

See too:

“One of the leading television commentators on one of our liberal cable channels said I was the best Republican president the country ever produced, which would come [as] quite a surprise to the Republicans, half of whom still think I’m a closet communist,” he said, according to Politico.

“What she meant by that was I didn’t necessarily follow their ‘conventional wisdom,'” he said. “I said, ‘What do you mean?!'”

In March, Maddow said, “What we ended up with is what we ended with, in my opinion, is the two terms of the Clinton administration, which is that Bill Clinton was probably the best Republican president the country ever had, if you look at the policies that he passed.”

Maddow’s is a common complaint, and in a way moderately favorable.  Also presented in a reasonable tone, short of the less “Progressive” but more blow-harded man who precedes her.  (Or the more inside-the-beltway figure that precedes him.)

Lanny Davis:

“We [Democrats] have our Tea Party side, and Rachel Maddow is typical…she’s sanctimonious and intolerant of anyone who disagrees with her. So, if it’s Bill Clinton, she calls him a Republican because he doesn’t meet Rachel Maddow’s test. So, the worst element of our party are people who call themselves liberal who are actually illiberal because they are intolerant of anyone who disagrees with them…”

That “Closet Communist” contingent is breaking apart, as Clinton now serves for foil to comparison against the Secret Kenyan Marxist Obama.

Hm.  The video that Jon Stewart has dancing about features… Lady Gaga shouting to Obama “ARE YOU LISTENING?”.  Interesting choice.
So it’s a gun-wielder versus dramatic “Dress all in Pink, pretend to sneak into publically held” meeting.
Dick Cheney shouting obscenities.  We could swarm into the realm of

I like that tiff better than Jimmy Carter versus the Ghost of Ted Kennedy.

Former President Jimmy Carter says Americans could have had comprehensive health care coverage decades ago if Sen. Edward M. Kennedy hadn’t blocked a plan Carter had proposed.

Carter revisited the old spat in an interview with CBS’ “60 Minutes” to be aired Sunday. Portions of the interview, prompted by the publication of his White House diary, were posted on the program’s website Thursday.

“The fact is that we would have had comprehensive health care now, had it not been for Ted Kennedy’s deliberately blocking the legislation that I proposed,” Carter said in the interview. “It was his fault. Ted Kennedy killed the bill.”

Carter cast his Democratic rival as spiteful. “He did not want to see me have a major success in that realm of life,” Carter said.

What’s great about these comments is that the comments in various blogs — starting with this Huffington Post item — brings about a repeat of the passions behind the Carter — Kennedy 1980 primary fight!
Who to side with?  Well, Carter strives to re-furnish his image, a lifetime project Bush is starting to undertake.  The thing Carter needed to know for a successful presidency was how to butter up key Congressional egos.

Clinton again:

Bill Clinton contends that the Republican Party has shifted so far to the right this election cycle that George W. Bush would be considered a liberal by 2010’s standard.

“A lot of their candidates today, they make him look like a liberal,” the former president said of his conservative successor during a Democratic fundraiser in Minnesota, the Associated Press reported.

You know, Rachel Maddow has a theory about that sort of political shifting.

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