THE BEAT DOWN

by Malik Isasis






















Senator John McCain, Republican from Arizona, appeared on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart on April 24, 2007 to try and polish this turd of an occupation in Iraq by regurgitating Bush’s talking points. McCain who has usually received a warm and non confrontational welcome from Stewart seemed unprepared for what was about to happened—even though Stewart came out the gate with: “What do you want to start out with—the bomb Iran song or the walk through the market in Baghdad? What do you want to start with?”

McCain appeared genuinely hurt by Stewart’s criticism of him on some of his shows. When McCain criticized Democratic leader Senator Reid about losing the war, his hurt manifested as a little jab at Stewart:

McCain: “You showed a thing on the program where majority leader of the senate said we lost—then tell me who won? Who won? Al-Qaeda? Sunni militia? Shia militia? Who won this? (Cross talk)

Stewart:”In fairness to Senator Reid and God bless me I don’t believe in fairness but uh—

McCain: --“I found that out recently.”

Right out of the gate Stewart hit McCain with an intellectually right and he was stunned—he was in complete disbelief. McCain looked like a man who had fallen in love with his own propaganda, only to be confronted by reality. Sounding like Bush’s water boy, he continued to spit out the Republican talking points of Democratic defeatism, they'll follow us home if we don't beat them there, etc. only to have the talking points completely deconstructed one by one.

The only strategy left for McCain by the end of the interview was to filibuster the conversation—a popular strategy with right wingers, which is to keep talking over the other person while he is trying to make a point. McCain was like an out of shape boxer in the tenth round, out of breath and tired. The only thing he could do was to grab Stewart and hold on and let the clock run down. And kudos to Stewart for taking body shots, even as McCain held on.

McCain looked like a fool, deservedly so. This is the lesson of believing your own hype.

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