President Bill Clinton was David Letterman's guest on Monday night. Letterman did three long segments with Clinton.
Then, Chris Rock was up next. There was very little time left, but he was able to plug his new HBO special as well as relay some memorable things to viewers.
Rock's brief segments were sort of like the minority party's response after the State of the Union speech, only far more entertaining.
Before hawking his special, Rock commented on Clinton's appearance, what Clinton said and especially what he didn't say.
Transcript
ROCK: Dave, Dave, Dave, I hope you don't expect me to be that smart.
LETTERMAN: It's pretty impressive.
ROCK: I got nothing. Whoa. I thought I was watching Charlie Rose. What the hell was going on here, Dave?
LETTERMAN: Now you... I know that you know the former president, and you've been together socially.
ROCK: I did. I know him.
LETTERMAN: What kind of stuff?
ROCK: When I hang out with him, I try to avoid the smart stuff. I try to steer it to sports. If I can just get it to basketball, I can hang.
Woo, that was... The economy and the election...
Is it me, or he didn't want to say the name "Barack Obama"?
He did not... He... He went through everything he could do... 'Well, like Hillary would want to do with the economy'... Hillary ain't running! Hillary's not running! What the hell?
LETTERMAN: Yeah, I understand...
ROCK: Somebody...One of those guys need to tell him...
LETTERMAN: Alright. I'll make a call later.
ROCK: I love Hillary, but, you know, she lost. She lost. She got a lot of votes. She lost. She did. The Patriots got a lot of points, too, but they lost to the Giants.
LETTERMAN: I like this. What are we doing here? But now...
ROCK: And then... She lost! Stop it!! She lost. And she did, and it's not sexism, the reason she lost. She lost to a black guy nobody heard of. She didn't lose to the power. Ooh, the power got her.
LETTERMAN: You... obviously very enthusiastic about the campaign.
ROCK: I'm very enthused, Dave. I'm out there every day, on the front lines, in the battleground states.
LETTERMAN: Getting it done...
ROCK: In Brooklyn, you know?
LETTERMAN: Now what about Sarah.. the governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin? Now that was sort of a surprise.
ROCK: That is unbelievable! Have you been to Alaska, Dave?
LETTERMAN: No, I've never been...
ROCK: It's like The Road Warrior with snow.
LETTERMAN: Really. It's bleak, a little?
ROCK: It's crazy up there, man. Insane. And she's shooting mooses, and she's got the moose, holding a dead, bloody moose. Michael Vick's like, 'Why am I in jail?'
LETTERMAN: Exactly.
ROCK: What the hell? You let a white lady shoot a moose. Black man want to kill a dog, that's a crime.
It wasn't just Rock.
I, too, thought that Clinton was trying not to mention Obama. Although at one point he did say that he backs Obama and he believes that Obama will win, Clinton seemed to want to remain impartial as he and Letterman discussed the election. It was noticeable. It was as if Clinton stubbornly refused to get out of Hillary campaign mode.
Interestingly, Clinton did have plenty of praise for Joe Biden. He said that Biden was one of his close allies during his presidency, and that he, Hillary, and Biden were good friends.
Another thing about Rock's comments--
I don't think illegal dog-fighting and legal hunting are comparable.
At the end of the interview, after Letterman put in the final plug for Rock's special, Letterman said, "Chris, great pleasure to see you. Thank you very much for being here."
As they shook hands, Rock shouted, "Yes. Obama!"
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Video.
18 comments:
Your comment was:
I don't think illegal dog-fighting and legal hunting are comparable.
Yeah ,right. Ask the dead, bleeding moose in Palin's photo if there is a difference. Hello?!
We're talking about the law.
Dog-fighting is illegal. Vick committed a crime.
Hunting is not illegal. Palin committed no crime.
Clearly, they aren't comparable.
Hunting a moose and consuming the meat is very different from raising dogs to kill each other. The cruelty of that blood sport and the gambling is not the same as hunting.
Hello?!
Does Obama like to hunt? Remember John Kerry's hunting trip? Most Dem candidates do go hunting, with the press corps in tow of course.
Dog fighting is illegal because the power structure (that has no problem with wealthy people running horses into the ground or greyhounds into the dirt) deemed it so. It doesn't have to be...if Brett Farve had been caught in a similar situation, do you think he would be destitute and imprisoned now?
Chris - Ya Big Dummy,
#1 Read the Subtext - Bill wasn't talking to you. He was talking to Republicans and their constituents, to whom SENATOR CLINTON must appeal to gain support for a Democratic Economic Recovery Plan possibly to be enacted BEFORE the election, which was the discussion. Campaigning Obama is unable to enlist Republican support for initiatives while he's still their sworn enemy.
#2 Stop alienating the women voters who will carry Obama across the threshold. Wise up if you want a win. You can't persuade Hillary supporters with rancor. Preaching to the converted yields FEWER electoral votes.Quoting you, Duh!
#3 The RNC's "Beat the B*tch" campaign, echoed in Republican Media outlets, vaulted your candidate into the realm of possibility. Until then, he was an also ran. So, Hillary did lose to "The Man." Need a clip reel?
#4 Reserve = Media Savvy - As Bill's wife, Hillary is his primary Government info source from whom he has the most ready quotes from which to draw. Obama is not, and an Obama misquote would have been much worse. Plus, he didn't quote McCain, he promoted Biden which takes aim at Palin, Obama's present competition, and did so without smearing. Quit whining.
#5 Obama got 2 minutes of expensive airtime, which is appropriate. Had Bill fawned all over Obama, Fox news would trumpet an insincerity angle and reverberated it ad infinitum.
"anonymous, 6:56 AM, September 23, 2008"--
I don't think Brett Favre would be caught in a similar situation.
Anyway, to answer your question, I do not think he'd be destitute, but he'd be in prison.
SJ, I agree with your point #3, but from a different angle.
"The Man" did defeat Hillary, but it wasn't the RNC.
No, it was the liberal media and the DNC.
"We're talking about the law.
Dog-fighting is illegal. Vick committed a crime.
Hunting is not illegal. Palin committed no crime.
Clearly, they aren't comparable."
What an incredibly stupid argument. People make the laws, they don't just rise up out of thin air. In the U.S., many of the laws simply represent the interests of those in power. That's why women couldn't vote for a long time, because men were in power. And simply because it was illegal for women to vote didn't make it wrong. Ideally, laws would reflect our moral values, but it has been a process of trying to find our moral center and represent that in our legal system.
When it was illegal for women to vote, did that make it wrong? And simply because it is legal to hunt moose and then take trophy pictures, or shoot wolves from airplanes and wound them for fun, does not make it morally acceptable behavior.
I'm glad Vick had to face consequences for his treatment of those dogs. Raising dogs to kill each other is disgusting. But hunting animals and then treating their dead bodies like trophies afterwards...pretty deplorable treatment of another living creature, and absolutely comparable to Vick's inhumane treatment of those dogs.
It's legitimate to question the law and to work to change it or enact new laws.
But today, under the law, Palin's actions are legal and Vick's were not.
Hunting a moose and then consuming it as food is nothing like raising dogs so some sick people can place bets and then watch them kill each other, slowly and painfully.
Deer hunting is huge in Wisconsin. I know these hunters would never put themselves on the same moral plane as Vick in regard to his abuse of dogs.
Out of everything that Chris Rock said, you guys are arguing about Palin's hunting...this is the type of sidebar politics that the media has been playing for the past six weeks.
I will never watch anymore Chris Rock movies or specials. He is obviously a racist. Michael Vic tortured and murdered innocent dogs for money. Sarah Palin did not hunt the moose for money. This is not a black issue. I wish that the majority of educated black people would open their mouths and say something.
ok now you tree huggers have gone to far. Moose hunting is legal. Dog fighting isn't. Shooting a moose is FOR the environment. The moose would over populate and STARVE. I guess you idiots would prefer that.
"Shooting a moose is FOR the environment. The moose would over populate and STARVE. I guess you idiots would prefer that."
Do you know how many cats and dogs they have to put to sleep every day because there aren't enough homes for those animals? So by your brilliant logic, shooting a dog would apparently be FOR the animal rights.
And having a completely unqualified female candidate who charged women for their own rape kits is actually FOR women's rights.
It's called the "who are you going to believe - me or your lying eyes" theory of logic.
"I will never watch anymore Chris Rock movies or specials. He is obviously a racist."
Right, YOU used to watch Chris Rock's comedy routines? Please...you're not even smart enough to get his jokes, much less convince anyone that you were one of his fans until he turned out to be a secret "racist"...it's obvious you've never laughed at a joke told by Chris Rock your entire life.
Regarding the many comments slamming Sarah Palin because she's a hunter and equating her completely legal behavior with the illegal activities of Michael Vick:
It's a mistake to demonize Palin for hunting.
There are millions of hunters in this country.
A million hunters take to the woods in Wisconsin alone during deer hunting season. The DNR wants to thin the herd and monitors the deer population.
Some of you criticizing Palin for hunting simply do not understand.
But that's OK. Keep calling hunters criminals like Vick. Keep slamming Palin.
You're helping Obama lose the sportsmen vote.
I'm not trying to demonize hunting. I'm just trying to establish equal consequences for equal actions. Don't treat one part of the population in a particular way, and another part of the population in a different way, for essentially the same behavior.
I do have problems with the hunting culture, but I know that it's complex and it's not as simple as saying 'hunting is evil'. But I think the point Chris Rock was trying to make was not to demonize hunting, but to point out the hypocrisy in the unequal treatment between Vick and Palin, both of whom treated animals in what could be considered an inhumane manner, depending on your perspective.
I personally think that many of the people who criticized hunting, would be more open to the culture, if they felt that these "sportsmen" would face up to the hypocrisy that seems like part and parcel of their culture. To me, that sense of hypocrisy is much more of an affront than humane hunting ever will be (and really, most of us eat meat, so who are we to judge how the animal is killed as long as its humane). But when it seems like people from that culture appear to revel in their hypocrisy rather than be honest, own up to it, and extend to others the same rights and freedoms they want for themselves, then yeah...people become lazy and just go after the hunting culture rather than deal with the real issues of hypocrisy, dishonesty and unequal treatment.
Maybe you are essentially okay with getting a better deal than others in this country even though you work no harder or are no more patriotic, but don't act shocked when others believe they have a right to be treated fairly too and begin to demand it, just like you would if you were in the same situation. You know this has nothing to do with hunting, and everything to do with each person getting a fair shake in life. But if you can't admit to that, if you can't admit that people get treated very differently for the same behavior and that it is unequal and unfair, and hunting is an example of that unequal treatment, then yeah, we're going to continue to argue about hunting as though that's the real problem.
Enough.
Bottom line: Michael Vick KNEW that he was engaging in ILLEGAL behavior. He knowingly broke the law.
Sarah Palin did NOT break the law. She was engaging in LEGAL behavior.
If Michael Vick was jailed for hunting moose in accordance with the law, THAT would be unequal treatment.
If Sarah Palin was allowed to run a dog-fighting ring out of her home and not arrested and jailed, THAT would be unequal treatment.
Good grief.
No honey, THIS is the bottom line: if Obama loses this November, you lose too...life is not going to be any financially rosier for you than any Democrat if another Bushie gets into the white house. Obama may lose the election...but you'll lose your house, you or someone in your family will lose their job, you'll lose your benefits, you'll lose social security, you'll lose a chance to stop being dependent on foreign oil, you'll lose your child's education, you'll lose your chance at health care, and you're basically going to lose your country. This is not about Democrat vs Republican, if Obama loses, I'm pretty sure the entire country is simply going to tank...the U.S. as you know it will be a thing of the past.
And as for thinking that Obama losing the "sportsman" vote is a threat, look, everyone in my family has a cushy job that will not be touched by an American depression...we will always have work, and we will always have health care, and we own our homes, and the state of the economy will not touch our lives in any desperate kind of way. YOU should be the one that's worried...think: you're happy that your family members may go bankrupt when one of them gets cancer? You're happy with the state of the educational system? You're happy that your sons and daughters are dying everyday in a war that had nothing to do with the people that actually committed 9/11? I know you're happy that the Republicans didn't raise your taxes, but then they spend billions of dollars of borrowed money...and you don't think that's indirectly raising your taxes...who's paying for that in the end? When you can't afford to pay your heating bill or put gas in the car, when a child in your family gets sick and you don't have the money for the operation, when another company ships their jobs overseas...you can thank the sportsman vote.
"Maybe you are essentially okay with getting a better deal than others in this country even though you work no harder or are no more patriotic" Enough said. Bye.
"Honey"?
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