Thursday, January 10, 2008

The Colbert Bump

First of all, I may as well take this opportunity to express my joy that Stewart/Colbert are back on the air, even if things are a bit weird both for them and their viewers (not to mention the writers) in light of the continuing strike.

That said, what exactly is Colbert thinking with this free publicity for Huckabee? Sure, he's a nice guy and his sense of humor plays well on the show, but is that worth endorsing the darling of the social conservatives of the Far Right?

I hope Colbert isn't just doing this for the free laughs, because, just like his questionable foray into joke-candidacy, they come at some price for the nation outside of TV-land.

Which is evidenced by this straight-faced article on CNN.com, a further blurring of the lines between real and joke news. As much as I love Colbert, I didn't find it all that funny.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

That said, what exactly is Colbert thinking with this free publicity for Huckabee? Sure, he's a nice guy and his sense of humor plays well on the show, but is that worth endorsing the darling of the social conservatives of the Far Right?

Huckabee is funny. Colbert is a comedian. Nothing more, nothing less.

The Huckster got Chuck Norris to do his campaign commercials and plays bass in a rock band. That makes him a better guest than say, Romney.

As to Huckabee being a darling of the far right, you should read a little more National Review. He's big with evangelicals; everyone else in the conservative coalition hates him.

eudaimonia said...

Ahem ;) Notice I said "the social conservatives of the Far Right..."

But I'm willing to admit that nothing draws out my humorless side like the prospect of an evangelical former pastor in the White House. Maybe he's the most open-minded, establishment-clause respecting evangelical former pastor there is, (with a quick sense of humor to boot) but he's still an evangelical former pastor, whose victory in Iowa was followed by prayer circles by his supporters on the floor of the venue.

This just plain scares me.