Musharraf on the Daily Show

I was settling down to take in some playful jokes about what is too tragic to be anything less than funny: the U.S. role in world politics.

Imagine my surprise that President Musharraf is the guest on the Daily Show!

And how sweet, Jon begins with the serving of tea....and twinkies...then it is straight to the hard questions, like where is bin Laden.

Is this the first interview of a foreign head of state on a comedy news show?

See how easy it is to stay in touch with world affairs?

The hard choices, being "in the line of fire" and deciding if they, he, Pakistan, should have cooperating with the U.S.
After all, we needed to go through there to get to bin Laden.....

Musharraf has an important point, we..and in this case, he and the government of Pakistan have to win people away from the Taliban.

I like how readily Musharraf agreed that he is much more calm about terrorists and terrorism than we, in the United States are, even though he is at the forefront.

Apparently Bush is endorsing Musharraf's books, will it reinforce Bush's version of the war on terror? Are we safer now? Are the Taliban contained??

Stewart mentioned that Musharraf does not discuss Iraq directly. Musharraf does not want to get into a debate on why we went, but he does state that Iraq has increased extremism and terrorism....so we are not safer--at least Musharraf does not think so. And I think this is a point that American's need to hear. Is this the only safe forum for him to say it.

Of course the funniest part of the interview was his assessment of who would win an election between Bush and bin Laden in Pakistan: both would lose miserably--good form.

Of course, the moment of Zen really put me in that twisted mood that only the Daily Show can: a clip of a FOX newscaster telling us that we have the next best thing to a national referendum for torture, America loves Jack Bauer of 24--they love seeing the tough torture type tactics against enemies of the state. It would not be too far fetched to think that television shows like 24 push up the torture element just to see how audiences react so Fox news can report on it, if it fits with the larger agenda of a tough no-holds-barred America.

As one person emailed Fox Dayside, and I paraphrase: how can people argue taking the moral high ground when those terrorists are cutting off people's hands and heads!

Sad isn't it? Foreign heads of state need to be on a comedy show to get opportunity to state dissent about how things are going in Iraq, and how scary it is that people liking violence on TV means we are okay with torture....are there really Americans who would support that? None of them are or were ever vets, I feel quite sure.

I hope that a diversity of ideas and perspectives continue to seep into mainstream media, although I am not too sure how mainstream the Daily Show really is...it may more be an instance of preaching to the choir....but the mainstream RIGHT does police it and loves to be outraged by it and therefore it is a portal and one that I hope continues to be exploited for the good of us all!


I just caught the late edition...
I am impressed with how quickly reviews of the show hit the news media.
I guess because this may be a first, and because we are getting the dirt straight from the man himself!

The Washington Post
International Herald Tribune
New York Times
NDTV.com