Just a heads up. (I would have posted earlier but I just found out myself.)
Or maybe it’s not a heads up for East Coasters. I don’t know how it works for TDS, the scheduling.
I’ll turn the TV back on when Colbert starts.
It was interesting but not compelling but the opening segment of the show was great. Nothing like a nutbag Congressman from Georgia comparing Obama to Hitler for easy laughs. Jon Oliver was great.
The Colbert report wasn’t as funny tonight.
I almost turned it off because it seemed like it was desending into angry bickering and it was starting to get on my nerves. I did find it funny when Bill insisted the stuffed animal was a panda.
It really seemed like he really thought it was a panda. Was he joking?
-FrL-
Pandas are communist bears. QED.
O’Reilly handled the interview well, knowing he was in enemy territory. By the end, though, his statements were as far removed from reality as the Hitler comments. That seems to be the problem with his stance. Any logical extension of his premises takes you off the edge.
Does anyone have some cites for his contention that most Americans self-identify as moderate conservatives? That doesn’t correspond with what I remember from polls.
Not a specific cite, but I’ve seen that asserted in several places. I think there was even an article in Newsweek recently about how Obama should govern remembering that most Americans are moderate conservatives. I remember it because I consider myself a moderate conservative, who voted for Obama.
Not moderate conservative. Moderate or conservative. That is the new talking point. It’s clearly true, since self-identified liberals are < 50% of the population. It is an attempt to say a moderate can’t be liberal and vice versa, and that Obama is not a moderate, but a radical liberal. Clearly moderates went for Obama.
A letter in the Times, in response to a column by Kristol on this very thing, said that it was true that most Americans were moderate or conservative, but that the Republican party lost because it moved right and away from moderate territory.
People do tend to self-identify as either Moderate of Conservative when asked. Liberal is self-applied at a much lower rate. What Stewart was trying to get at, however poorly, is that when you ask people about policy their answers tend to be far more liberal than conservative. The example Stewart gave was Social Security, which is certainly not a particularly conservative institution, is dearly beloved an any national politician pushing for its elimination would lose handily. Similar sentiments are expressed when the populace is asked about universal health care, tax policy, the environment, and even cultural issues like abortion.
The majority may call themselves moderate or conservative, but they tend to take the same positions as politicians they call liberal. Hence “the most liberal member of the Senate” getting 53% of the vote from a “center-right” nation.
I’m not sure I heard him right, was O’Reilly bragging about the conservative South being blood thirsty savages?
No, O’Reilly clearly said moderate conservatives. I would agree if he had said moderate or conservative. If that’s what he meant to say it would be true. However, the context of the statement was his proclamation that America is still a center-right country. Stewart was saying that the line had shifted to being center-left.
This appears to be correct, not just from the election returns but from all polling I’ve seen. Many more people self-identify as Democrats than Republicans and more as liberals than as conservatives. No one group, including moderates, is a majority but liberals are a plurality, even if that is only somewhere around 35% of the population.
This is totally different from what O’Reilly was arguing and different from the words he used. That’s why I’m asking if there are any numbers that can back him up.
Damn, I missed it! What stuffed animal? 
(I would love, LOVE it if someone had asked him about Keith Olbermann-but I’ll bet no one did?)
While I would agree that more Americans now call themselves liberal leaning that’s on a political spectrum that I consider already way too conservative. Compared with the rest of the first world, I think O’Reilly is correct in saying this nation is still moderately conservative.
Jon said he wanted to quiet O’Reilly’s fear about the Obama presidency, and make him feel safe. Jon gave him a little teddy bear and a cup of hot chocolate. It was a cute little bear (O’Reilly petted it once) but it wasn’t a panda.
Nobody mentioned Olbermann.
I liked Jon’s argument that American beliefs are a progression – Americans really aren’t traditional. (Paraphrased) They could have talked about that some more.
Is Jon really 5’7"? I thought he was a tall guy.
It seems to me Stewart hardly ever shows clips of O’Reilly, no matter what stupid shit he says. I always thought it had to do with working for same parent company, (is that true, is it the same company?).
No, Stewart is short. Still taller than I am.
John Stewart is a very tiny man.
No Offense MFZZZ.
You may be right about what he said - I erased the show from my DVR, but I haven’t seen any polls with “moderate conservative” as a category. Or moderate liberal or moderate moderate either. He might have used that term either deliberately or he might have slurred it.
Here is an article with the poll numbers Kristol and no doubt O’Reilly were referring to.
I agree with you that this moderate population went left in this election - how left depends on how far left you consider Obama to be. That’s the amusing thing about the claims. If Obama is really the most liberal senator, then these moderates went far left and O’Reilly’s claim of the moderate conservative majority is meaningless, since moderates clearly vote socialist. 
No, Comedy Central is owned by Viacom, and Fox is owned by Fox.
I watching it now.
For others who have no television, the whole show is available on Hulu.
Nitpick: Fox is owned by The News Corporation.