John McCain was on The Daily Show last Tuesday (Part I and Part II), and he received quite a different reception than he did the previous eight or nine times he’s been on the show.
During his “straight talk” years, he’d been a great guest for Jon Stewart because he was different from the other Republicans, because he as a Republican and a conservative, but he wasn’t afraid to criticize Bush and the way the war was going. The audience generally liked him and Jon could usually find some common ground with him and joke around about current events.
On Tuesday, McCain had the difficult task of selling his position in favor of Bush’s “surge” to Jon and an audience that would prefer to see the U.S. pull out. Stewart chided McCain about his “stroll through the market” and made a good case for why continuing the military fight is not worth it. McCain responded with a Rumsfeld impression of asking a series of questions and answering them himself before Jon could respond.
In the past when he was on the show, the conversations between them were always pretty fun and they were respectful enough of each other to recognize when it was time to pause and let the other guy say a few words. Not so during this interview. Jon was even jokingly apologetic for the way his audience responded to some of McCain’s statements but, at one point, McCain just wouldn’t shut up about how it was wrong to not give the surge a chance and how the Democrats were giving up on it. The debate then got pretty heated (for a Daily Show interview that is…) but Jon was able to calm McCain down and bring things back around to a more cordial level. Midway through, Jon did stand up for his audience and say to McCain that all those people out there voicing displeasure with his stance on the war are patriotic Americans that only want what they think is best for the country.
I used to like McCain a little and I did have respect for his views even though I didn’t agree with him about most things. I think that’s all starting to wear off now.
Needless to say, I will tune in the next time he’s on the show for what Jon said will be pure “shits and giggles.”
I saw Bill Moyer’s talk with Jon Stewart following the McCain interview. Stewart’s knowledge and the depth and sincerity of his feelings were pretty impressive. I used to think McCain might not be so bad either but I’m pretty much over that.