Jon Stewart is a GENIOUS! He can hold himself with anyone in a debate.

[merwin]

He's full of satiric humor, but he's also full of damn good points that are REALLY hard to refute, and he makes people look stupid trying to refute it, while still remaining civil with them and ending up shaking hands afterwards.

THAT is how a debate should be conducted. We need more honest debates that cut through the bullshit and go directly to the points. I am pretty confident that (like Paul Hackett) Jon Stewart would give a serious challenge to any opposing candidate for office, for the sheer fact that they don't take shit from people and they're not afraid to call people a liar or theif no matter who they are. One of Kerry's major mistakes was NOT getting on camera and flat out saying that Bush is a miserable fucking liar. IMHO, that's why Hackett got such good support from conservatives. Most of the 'traditional' conservatives will bypass party affiliation for someone who tells the honest truth, in simple plain language... no beating around the Bush :-)

[poverlay]

1. Oh Wow...That was beautiful! I just came out of my seat.

I actually felt sorry for Hitchens there at the end. He really had it handed to him. If only our elected leaders would put up like Jon just did...

wow

[autorank]

2. You don't get in William & Mary College w/out a first rate brain...

Fortunately for us, he didn't destroy it and now he's turning it on the world. Stewart gone wild! He is extremely bright and very quick. I missed this but will watch the rerun tomorrow night. What a guy!

[klebean]

4. no sympathy for Hitchens

and is Stewart feeling emboldened by Hart's recent missive?
Stewart is the best thing that's happened to politics, strictly adhering to civil discourse.

[tulsakatz]

3. he did a great job tonight!

Merwin, that was Maher's problem with Kerry, he kept saying he should have 'called him (Bush) out'. There is certainly plenty of stuff that Bush has done that would have given him ammunition!

What was so great about what Jon did tonight was that it was a logical, rational conversation focused on the facts. No distracting statements, no talking points, no insults..........just 2 people rationally discussing a difference of opinion!

It was brilliant!!

[AtomicKitten]

5. He bitch-slapped Hitchins

Jon Stewart is a smart, thoughtful guy, and he was po'd tonight.
Hitchins simply supports imperialism, and that ideology is insane.

[MercutioATC]

6. Jon Stewart is also scripted.

Knowing what's going to be discussed and what your replies are going to be beforehand is much different than a "debate".

[tkmorris]

7. Nonsense

There are walk-throughs and sometimes full scripting done for interviews on shows like this but The Daily Show just wings them more than most shows. The discussion tonight between Hitchens and Stewart was certainly one of those. I would guess that they agreed on points to discuss but the interview itself was genuine.

If you want to see the difference see if you can find video of Jon's interview with Joe Lieberman. That thing may as well have been read from a teleprompter.

[Missy M]

8. The same as a presidential election debate!!!

[Pepperbelly]

11. actually ... that is the very essence of debate.

Debate is always about preparation first. And I know. I was NDT debater in college who did very, very well.

It is ALL preparation.

[MercutioATC]

16. Of course it is.

There's a difference between being the host of a show and controlling the dialog and participating in a debate, though.

[merwin]

21. How was he controlling the dialog?

They were there to discuss one topic. Bush and his handling of the war. The whole thing was point/counter-point. They were both initiating questions to the other person.

I understand what you're saying by the host controlling the dialog, but Stewart doesn't do that unless the guest doesn't want to participate (in that case it just turns into an interview).

[merwin]

12. It's impossible to script a debate like that.

It's as scripted as any other debate. You know what topic you're going to be discussing, but you don't know what the other person is going to say.

[MercutioATC]

17. But as the host of a show, you CONTROL the debate.

There's a difference, IMO.

[merwin]

20. The only thing he controls is when to end the debate (because of the end

of the segment). Seems like the direction that it was going in was mostly set by the other guy. He'll let the guest say basically whatever they want and follow in that direction.

[RebelOne]

9. Jon Stewart is a genius.

[theHandpuppet]

10. The morans are going to come down hard on us...

... unless you change that to "GENIUS". ;)

[merwin]

13. I've never been great at speeling

[Totally Committed]

14. Does anyone else think he should be the one who coaches

the Democratic Candidate for the debates next time instead of the sorry, worn-out, has-been likes of Carville or Begala, etc?

I think he'd be an awesome coach.

[spooky3]

15. I had the same reaction. He's really brilliant at being able to

keep focused on complex issues and respond to arguments, while trying to remaining on schedule AND be entertaining. I was in awe of him last night and wish he had at least a half hour with these interviews.

[Generator]

18. Yep he's really really bright

With Hitchens..I was cringing and my new policy is to turn it off when he has conservatives or lunatics or Republicons on because it makes my blood pressure way too high before beddy bye. Anyway-Jon brought up a wonderful point that I never see addressed-how is attacking any country going to stop a few extremist terrorists from getting on a plane and doing another 9/11? It's not. It's stupid ass policy-and you can't kill an IDEA that people are willing to die for. And it's the height of insulting and demeaning and fucking LIE to say those that lived through this..those liberals in New York City are wanting to roll over and die because they don't want to kill every last Iraqi alive. It's madness.

Ahh we live in a age of madness..Hitchens points were lame-o-Iraq had terrorists inside it's borders before the war-so still does Saudia Arabia..Pakistan..others and so it's all war all the time? The ass-how many children has he had die in war? How many wars has he fought in? Oh yeah-he's been to all those countries-it's not the same thing. He's just another fucking ideologue-it's all an IDEA to him not anyone's real life. Beware of the ideolgues-Hitchens is really no different than the terrorists that attacked us on 9/11-the idea is paramount to the reality of real deaths.

[StayOutTheBushes]

19. I hold myself all the time, too. It's a man thang.