In an appearance at the University of Chicago on Monday, Jon Stewart, as NewsBusters' Scott Whitlock noted the next day, mocked those who think highly of this country's ideals and history, and particularly GOP frontrunner Donald Trump and his supporters, when he asked, "When was American great?"
In that interview with former Obama presidential campaign chief David Axelrod, the former fake Comedy Central newsman also called Trump a "man-baby," and sharply criticized Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton, questioning her authenticity: "... Maybe a real person doesn't exist underneath there." Readers here will have little difficulty guessing which personal critique the Associated Press used in its related story's headline and most of its verbiage:
(posted in full because of its brevity, and for fair use and discussion purposes)
The problems Stewart had with Mrs. Clinton went much further than the "courage of her convictions." It went to whether she has any convictions at all:
Transcript (bolds are mine):
JON STEWART: What I think about Hillary Clinton, you know, I imagine to be, a very bright woman, without the courage of her convictions, 'cause I’m not even sure what they are.
So, I would suggest that when I watch her campaign —
(audience applauds)
- when I watch her campaign it reminds me of — and again, I'm throwing out references that mean absolutely nothing to anybody, so, I will continue to do that — uh, she reminds me of Magic Johnson's talk show. And I won't say anything.
DAVID AXELROD: You had that thought, too, huh?
STEWART: If you ever watch Magic Johnson talk, Magic Johnson was a charming individual, but he wasn’t a talk show host. And when you watched his show, you could almost see Arsenio's advice to him in realtime rendering.
So he would sit and he would go (affecting a poker face) "Uh, my first guest tonight" ... (Oh, Arsenio said enthusiasm is something that sells) ... "my first guest tonight is (becomes obviously overenthusiastic) CHER, everybody!"
But he never seemed authentic and real to his personality. It seemed like he was wearing, uh, an outfit designed, uh, by someone else, for someone else, to be someone else.
And that is not to say that she is not preferable to Donald Trump — because at this point, I would vote for Mr. T over Donald Trump. But, she will, I think she will be in big trouble if she can’t find a way, and maybe I’m wrong. Maybe a real person doesn’t exist underneath there.
Stewart's admission that he would still vote for Mrs. Clinton over Trump hardly excuses the AP's disparate treatment, given that his critique, as a poster at Zero Hedge observed, "stopped just short of calling ... (her) a sociopath."
Additionally, it's quite interesting that Axelrod chimed in with his "you had that thought too?" agreement about Mrs. Clinton's delivery so quickly. It confirms the intense dislike and disrespect Obama and his apparatchiks have for her.
CNN's coverage was similar to AP's, only in extended form. "He (Trump) is a man-baby" was the headline, and only three of 10 paragraphs went to Stewart's critique of Mrs. Clinton.
A Google News search done shortly after 11 a.m. Eastern Time on Friday on "Stewart man-baby" (not in quotes, sorted by date, with duplicates) returned over 450 items.
That number dropped to about 250 in a search on ["Jon Stewart" Hillary Clinton] (typed exactly as indicated between brackets) — and almost every one of them led with a reference to Stewart's "man-baby" characterization of Trump.
Cross-posted at BizzyBlog.com.
