You know, I think that I want Chris Wallace to be in charge of the 2012 debates. He deserves a reward for giving Jon Stewart the business in this one:

The fun really starts at about 5 minutes in: Stewart tried what Ace calls the “Clown Nose On / Clown Nose Off” (after stating, more or less, that conservatives are incapable of understanding liberals’ motivations) and Chris Wallace demonstrated that he was expecting precisely that answer. Because, really, nobody is as smart as they think that they are. As Jon Stewart demonstrates, over and over and over again; his repeated insisting that he wasn’t being ruled by his biases kind of lost power with every counter-example that Wallace put up on the screen. But then, it’s rare on television that people are actually grilled on things.

Watch the whole thing; it’s fifteen minutes of pure political entertainment, and Stewart probably should have quit about eight minutes in. Mostly because Wallace maneuvered him into a position at the end where Stewart himself had to admit that conservatives are routinely attacked – INCLUDING BY HIM – for a variety of things that we, in point of fact, are not actually guilty of. Which would have been… nice… of him to admit, except that nowhere did Stewart actually promise to reform his ways. As Wallace demonstrated at the very end, by cheekily accepting an apology that Stewart did not actually offer. Which is illustrative of Stewart’s pseudo-detached style in general; only, it’s a lot uglier without the laugh track.

So, let Wallace be in charge of the debates; I’d be interested to see what he’d do with them.

Moe Lane (crosspost)

PS: “You.. ah, planning a remake of Amos & Andy?” – In response to Jon Stewart’s imitation of Herman Cain. Jon visibly did not like being treated like a conservative who did the same thing would have been treated; and his response – whether Wallace would have asked the same question about Stewart’s New York voice, or his Chinese Guy voice, fell flat partially because he was definitely stung. But it mostly fell flat because conservatives aren’t actually allowed to do funny Chinese Guy voices, either, without getting raked over the coals for it. Heck, we’re not even allowed to have New York accents.

PPS: I actually like Jon Stewart. But he’s not going to remember this interview fondly.