My Epihany Via John Stewart

Was drinking some beers with my bud watching comedy central, and caught the Daily Show with Kucinich on, and had an extremely positive experience. Let me give a little backstory though. This friend of mine, is incredibly pragmatic, he feels that work/party/food are about it for him in terms of what he needs to worry about, I disagree but understand. This isn't to say he is closed off, he is very aware of the world, and what is going on just chooses not too involve himself, his thought is I cant change it all I'm just gonna live. And during the spot he only asked me 'is this one of your boys', in reference to Kucinich all i said was oh yeah there was no other selling from me. Afterwards, he said' Now, what does it take to get him or a guy like him in charge'...'seriuos man, lets do some shit posters whatever', he was dead serious. This is a guy who has never had an interest in politics or politicians, and he here was ready to go. Is Kucinich the answer...I don't know but if a little daily show segment can awaken the most totally politically inert...think of the possibilities of all the voters who want something different. I feel the naysaying needs to quit about whether we will win, we have to change that attitude, lots here say we need a fighter, well we gotta be fighters too. Not only do we have to get rid of dubya but we CAN. Like Morford said he is but a blip. My suggestion is however many thousands of us that are here stay away from these boards when need our political jones, and grass roots this thing. Kucinich is not a long shot if we stop saying he is. If it ends up being more of a centrist fine. My point here is Bush is NOT invincible lets light a fire under everyones ass, the fuel is there we just gotta light it, it will happen if we want it to. The reason most vote for Bush or dont vote at is cause they think he is going to win again, and they either want to be on the winning team, or know its a foregone conclusion. Thats whats gotta change.

You make some good points even if it was hard to read.

We've got to keep our eyes on the prize. We've got to defeat Bush in 2004. The best thing we can do right now is keep the primary race thoroughly civil and not have a Naderesque bashing of the front-runners as "No different than Bush." Is there ANYONE out there who can still say with a straight face that Al Gore would have been no different than George W. Bush? Then let's not kill ourselves over infighting and ideological purity this time. I agree that, given no choice except real Bush vs. fake Bush, people will vote for real Bush or stay home. But let's not trump up a little centrism or a little rhetorical caution into a full-blown case of Bush me-tooism.

So back your guy, whoever he/she is. If you like Kucinich, back Kucinich. I'm just saying, please let's not start smearing everyone to the right of our personal preference as Bush-lite. Remember, Dukakis in the 1988 primaries "went in a pig and came out a sausage" as the saying goes. If we go after each other for blood this time, whoever emerges with the nomination is going to be so damaged and so homogenized as to be virtually unelectable.

Just for clarification, I am NOT accusing Texan_Razorback of bashing anybody. I am just using his remarks, and particularly his optimism about replacing Bush in 2004, as a point of departure.

This friend of mine, is incredibly pragmatic, he feels that work/party/food are about it for him in terms of what he needs to worry about

I hope more people wake up before it's too late.

I'm so grateful Jon Stewart had him on since a whole lot of younger kids get their political information from shows like his. Its great he inspired a "I don't give a shit person" - so many of them out there.

Even though, or perhaps because, TDS prides itself on being "fake news", Jon is a gifted interviewer who can bring out the best in his subjects. If I were the DNC, I'd look into hiring him as a PR consultant. If I were MSNBC, I'd be offering him a huge contract to balance out "Scarborough Country" or some other right-wing crapshoot.

With one simple question, "Does being a long shot mean you can speak more freely, or does speaking freely make you a long shot?" and blammo! He's cut right past all the crap and given his subject the opportunity of a lifetime to address a central campaign issue on national tv! Jon Stewart is a brilliant man.