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Keith Olbermann, Jon Stewart Fail to Eviscerate Sarah Palin

by Tommy Christopher | 9:12 am, February 9th, 2010

» 14 comments

Hyperbole must be over. How else does one explain the extremely disappointing bits that Jon Stewart and Keith Olbermann did on Sarah Palin last night? Handed (thank you, I’m here all week) 3 days of Palin material that rivaled anything George W. Bush ever gave them, Olbermann could barely manage a molecule of spittle, let alone a lather, and Stewart deployed his seldom-used Nerf™ jokes.

Have these Sovereigns of Smackdown gone soft? Are these Sultans of Snark running scared? How is any of this supposed to result in an outraged rebuttal on Palin’s Facebook page?

I’ll start with Stewart, because his bit was merely lame. He resorts to the comedy stylings of NBC News’ Andrea Mitchell, completely misses the chance to show GOP all-stars using the dreaded teleprompter, gives Palin and the Tea Party a pass on Tom Tancredo’s Jim Crow nostalgia, and fails to point out the central point of hand-gate: That Palin knew what questions were coming, and still needed a cheat sheet.

He also leaves out any mention of Palin’s defense of Rush Limbaugh, but only because he was saving that so Lewis Black could also defend Limbaugh. At least Black is explicit in his desire to be able to call people “retards,” instead of falsely, lamely claiming he’s just quoting someone else. Still, Palin ought to call for his firing, too.

Keith Olbermann, I had such high hopes for you on this one. Why did you have to pick this time to stay hinged? This was your moment, man! Last week, I thought you were overreaching when you teed Palin up, but then she caught up to you over the weekend. Why didn’t you close the deal? Last week, you were all like “Palin is done like a burnt brownie,” and now you’re like: Look! She’s using a lectern!”

Sure, he hit all the right points, but where’s the outrage? Jim Crow? Palin’s nonsensical, cowardly weaseling out of being a concerned special needs mom? “The war card?!?” Keith got more worked up than this when someone trashed his demo ratings.

But the worst offense has to be this bit with an inspired premise, but executed with the finesse of a drunken, incontinent caribou:

That had to be, without a doubt, the worst Topo Gigio impression I have ever seen. Here’s a hint: Don’t do a Topo Gigio bit if you have limited thumb mobility.

I suppose Palin and her spokesperson could divine something misogynistic about that bit, maybe the amount of lipstick, or all that unwanted hair, but I doubt it.

Guys, really, how is ts that, out of the 3 of us, I’m the only one who got in a veiled masturbation joke? What is the world coming to?

Since outrage is the currency of the realm in politics these days, if you’re not displaying it, or causing it, what good are you?

barack obama, Handgate, Jon Stewart, keith olbermann, Lewis Black, Rush Limbaugh, Sarah Palin, telepalmter, Tommy Christopher

JamesA1102

Fail?????

One question Mr. Christopher. What color is the sky in your world?
The Real Royal King

I suspect this is more a question of the declining news value of an interest in the Drop Out Governor. She seems to have greatly diminishing approval and popularity. Even Van Susteren seems to have stopped stalking her.
Azarkhan

I love white people who criticize other white people for being, well, white people. A good example is Chris Matthews, who is so white he f*cking glows in the dark. Other good examples are some of the leftist boobs who write here, like the Real Royal A-Hole, Billy Bob Adkins, and DumbE Opie. (another one even calls himself “homie”; now how cute is that!)

Somewhere along the way these white people heard that black people be cool, and they wanted to join that set! Of course, they didn’t really want to join. I mean, they weren’t going to give up that nice “white” education that got them that nice “white” job that got them that nice “white” house in the nice “white” suburbs. (Oh I forgot, these superior white people prefer to live in an urban setting, i.e., if it is a nice “white” gentrified neighborhood)

But somehow it still didn’t feel right. They looked in a mirror and YIKES! THEY WERE STILL WHITE! What to do? Ahhhh, of course, they thought: We’ll just pretend we’re not white. We can’t be can we? After all, we’re enlightened, we’re superior, and we feel the pain of the downtrodden oppressed minorities. But how to make that distinction? Hmmmm. Oh right, we’ll critique all those other white people who don’t think exactly like we do. We’ll label them racists.

The only problem was that black people never got the message. Because, to paraphrase Malcolm X, regardless of the size of a white leftist’s ego, amount of education, or status in life, to a black person, they are still just “white boys”.
The Real Royal King

How sad you weren’t in your prime in the years before the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act, Azarkhan. You would have been very popular in Shreveport, Meridian, Birmingham, Smyrna and Charleston.
AikidoJoe

I thought both of the videos above were funny. It appears that Tommy Christopher wishes they were more mean spirited. Maybe they should of made fun of her kids and appearance, too. Get over it Tommy. They mocked her. I’m sure this will be poked fun at for a very long time. It should be. It was silly. But to be disappointed because it wasn’t mean enough shows you to be petty.

Maybe instead of sitting around sulking about the lack of “evisceration”, you could, oh, I don’t know, find out about the health care bill. You know, the one that Obama admitted had provisions in it that could possibly result in us being forced off our insurance and cause us to lose our doctors. He and his fellow Democrats did call everyone liars and fear mongers for even suggesting that his bill would do that. Take a run at it, champ.

In Obama’s own words:
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2010/01/29/obama_health_care_bill_might_have_violated_pledge_on_keeping_some_doctors_and_insurers.html
nwjw

Tommy, applying for a job at MSNBC? You seem upset things didn’t go your way…take a pill, call David Shuster for some uplifting diatribe and you’ll feel better.
Tommy Christopher

Aikido Joe,

there’s no way you could have known this, but I have consistently defended Palin against unwarranted attacks:

http://dailydose.us/tag/sarah-palin/

And I’ve done extensive reporting on the health care bill, including the huge problems with it. Currently, the House and Senate are merging two bills, and when that happens, when something goes to the President to sign, I will report on it.

“Evisceration” was a reference to a bit that Stewart did last week, and this post isn’t calling for them to be mean, but rather, to suggest that Stewart and Olbermann have swung the pendulum too far the other way.
AikidoJoe

Tommy Christopher,

I appreciate you responding to me. I appreciate you defending against Palin attacks but you are also revel in the too. Which is fine. I don’t care. I’m not a Palin fan. I trying to convey sarcasm. I guess I failed. :-|

In regards to the health care bill. That doesn’t answer the question of what those provisions were and who “slipped” them in. Or, that every single Democrat that spoke on this called Republicans and Tea Party folks fear mongers, racists, and worse, if they raised the point that the bill would force you off your insurance and possibly make you lose your doctor. For Obama to come out and admit that was absolutely stunning! The silence at that revelation was deafening! I’ve been lurking on this site for quite some time before signing up, after Bill O’Reilly said on air that this was a fair site, and to see nobody on here take the Democrats to task on this is very disappointing.
AikidoJoe

I know words are missing. It happens when pretending to work and waste time on a blog at the same time. :-P
Puter Boi

Hey, TC?

“finesse of a drunken, incontinent caribou”

I will have you know that over the years I have spoken with some of the most famous drunken, incontinent caribou in the world and I can attest to their sensitivity….you know….about the incontinent part…..and from what I hear they will be staging a protest against your scandalous analogy ….as soon as they sober up.

You should feel shame.
writer

I don’t love Palin. I don’t hate Palin. What I hate is the left’s practice of including what they think about a person’s looks when presenting a political argument, as if that further validates their point. From what I’ve heard, Jennifer Aniston is a liberal. I don’t think that makes her physically unattractive. To try and connect the one thing with the other is ridiculous, yet the left is constantly doing so with Palin. (It’s said that Tina Fey and Sarah Palin resemble each other. I guess the left thinks Tina is “ugly” too.)
http://sarainitalyblog.blogspot.com/ sarainitaly

Keith Olbermann, Jon Stewart Fail to Eviscerate Sarah Palin

Perhaps because they read and understood Rush’s show…

What does that lame hand puppet have to do with Topo Gigio?
DEO

Writer,
I REALLY disagree with you there. I read so very often Palin supporters saying nice things about her and then they just can’t RESIST saying…”PLUS, SHE’S HOT!”

Aniston campaigned for Bush while her then husband, Brad Pitt, campaigned for Kerry.
Not that it matters, silly thing to bring up. Palin supporters ALWAYS bring up physical attributes.

BTW
I thought Jon Stewart’s piece was VERY funny.
writer

Yeah, DEO. You never mention Palin’s physical appearance when making an argument against her. It’s totally different. And I heard Aniston on TV calling Bush a f***ing idiot. Guess she changed her mind. Anyway, since you’re always deriding Palin’s looks, would you please give us your take on Nancy Pelosi or Rachel Maddow, looks wise. Ravishing beauty queens, are they?