On the October 15 broadcast of CNN’s Starting Point, W. Kamau Bell of FX’s Totally Biased appeared to discuss politics and comedy in today’s discourse. However, this self-avowed “lefty” pulled no punches in slamming Mitt Romney as a candidate whose robotic tendencies forced him “to act like a human.”
Bell also gushed that President Obama is as versatile and useful as a Swiss army knife.
The second and third episodes featured MSNBC's Rachel Maddow and Alex Wagner respectively. A couple days after Mitt Romney selected Paul Ryan as his running mate, Bell asked Maddow for her assessment of the Wisconsin Republican:
I think that Paul Ryan is un-famous...The Republicans were sort of really excited that the National Review and the Weekly Standard and Fox News would like him. That's not the world. That's a very big part of their very small world. I think they're shocked that anybody finds killing Medicare to be at all controversial. In their world, Paul Ryan is a hunk and not at all controversial and the obvious choice. Now he's in the world and has to sell that message to the country. May have helped them solidify the base, but the base is not the country. The country votes. I think it will hurt him (Romney).
One week later, Alex Wagner had the privilege of making her appearance right after the controversial comments that Todd Akin made about the rarity of pregnancy after 'legitimate rape'. Setting her up for it, Bell asked Wagner if she thought Akin is representative of the Republican Party, which she, of course, ran with to tar every Republican with Akin, although virtually every leader of the GOP denounced the Missouri Senate candidate:
Todd Akin is incredibly representative of the Republican Party. The best way I can put it for the Republican Party, it's been midnight in America and the Republican Party has been at the refrigerator pounding marshmallow fluff and cookie dough and didn't think anybody would notice. The Republican Party is fat and ugly and they have marshmallow all over their face. They have been passing these laws -- this is what they've been doing in congress. They've been fooling around with this mumbo jumbo non-science, the attacks on women's healthcare and reproductive rights. And they didn't think anybody would notice. Guess what? People are noticing. We have Todd Akin to thank for a lot of that.
Great timing by CNN to deliver a nice jab to Romney and words of adoration for Obama on the eve of tomorrow’s presidential debate.
W. KAMAU BELL: I'm a lefty. I thought that Joe Biden thing was awesome. It's great to make fun of Joe Biden. Joe Biden is perfect. He has two speeds, zero and 1,000. I think that's what great for political comedy when you get to see Joe Biden mix it up.
RICHARD SOCARIDES: What's funny now about Mitt Romney and Barack Obama? What are the funniest things about them?
BELL: I mean, the funny thing about Mitt Romney is he's in this position where basically they're telling him to act like a human. I think it's great to see him be in this position where he's trying to connect with the everyday person. You guys were talking about the super rich.
He really doesn't see everyday people probably that often. It's great to see him out there mixing it up with everyday people trying to act human. It's great to see Barack have to choose, which Barack he wants to be.
CHRYSTIA FREELAND: Meaning what?
BELL: Barack's like a Swiss army knife. There's rock star Barack. There's Professor Barack. There's singing Barack. There's sexy Barack. There's a lot of different Baracks you can choose from. At the debate last week he picked annoyed Barack.
