Last night, Jon Stewart tore into the media for their absurd comparisons of the Obamacare website glitches to Hurricane Katrina with a Daily Show panel.
Man, it's been a rough couple of weeks for President Obama, months really. His foreign allies are angry with him because we are spying on them. His domestic allies are angry at him because of the incompetent health care roll-out. He taped over his wedding video recently. He was just trying to record a very special episode of 2 Broke Girls. Hello, Mr. President? They're all special.
And this weekend, he was booed at a basketball game! (audience boos) And now here, in my studio!! Or was that something else? To give you some sense of perspective about where things are for the President, this is how a crowd greeted the crack-smoking train-wreck of a mayor in Toronto on Saturday.
(crowd wildly cheering Rob Ford)
You're an idiot!! And that was before Mayor Ford's Monday adventure.
(video clip of Ford running into a city councillor)
(shocked audience laughter)
"Do not get in between me and my crack!! I will knock you over!!" (audience laughter)
It is hard to overstate what a low point this is in Barack Obama's presidency. Hard to overstate it, but not impossible.
BRIAN WILLIAMS (11/15/2013): President Obama now finds himself compared to President George W. Bush, as in the problems with the health care plan have become President Obama's Katrina.
CNN: Is this Obama's Katrina moment?
THOMAS ROBERTS: President Obama's Katrina moment.
Katrina?! Hurricane Katrina. Yes, I believe we've all seen the damning photos of the presidential flyover surveying the human suffering of the healthcare.gov website from a safe distance.
(audience laughter and applause)
Look, I'm not trying to polish the .turd that is healthcare.gov. But comparing the government abdication of responsibility during Hurricane Katrina, the death of hundreds of people, the displacement of hundreds of thousands of people to a shitty website, is offensive.
Apparently, to the people who were in charge during Hurricane Katrina.
ANDREW CARD (11/18/2013): Katrina was a real disaster, but we also had jurisdictional challenges, because you had a mayor, and the White House couldn't do anything with the mayor objecting. We had a Governor of Louisiana who was a challenge to work with.
That's President Bush's Chief of Staff Andy Card saying it's not fair to President Bush to compare the healthcare.gov roll-out to Katrina, because during Katrina, Bush didn't get the cooperation of the Louisiana Governor. You know, the way that Obama gets it now.
LOUISIANA GOV. BOBBY JINDAL, R (11/8/2013): Look, nobody's going to bully Louisiana into expanding Medicaid, or joining part of Obamacare.
Bullying?! The Feds were going to pay for the Medicaid expansion! How is that bullying?? "Hey four-eyes! If you need to see an ophthalmologist, we can cover that." I mean, how is that bullying?? (audience laughter and applause)
That's not the only reason, by the way, that the comparison's unfair to George Bush.
STEVE DOOCY (11/15/2013): George Bush didn't invent a hurricane.
ANDREA TANTAROS (11/15/2013): Well, Katrina was one region, though. This is across the country.
CHRIS WALLACE (11/15/2013): Katrina was a terrible event, Lord knows, you were there, you saw how badly our government responded. But it began and it ended within a week. This could affect people's lives for years to come.
Are you outta your.... (disgusted audience reaction) Do you see how you've disappointed our audience? They think you might be out of your fucking mind! (audience cheering and applause) I mean, Hurricane Katrina lasted a week, and the effects of Obamacare.... Spike Lee's documentary about Katrina lasted longer than a week! (audience laughter and applause)
Video below the fold.
Jon then had another
Gaywatch segment, looking at the Cheney family dispute over gay marriage.
Meanwhile, Stephen, after bragging about how Colbert Nation
outraised China in money for the Philippines, also looked at the
stupid media comparisons of Obamacare to Hurricane Katrina, and of
stupid gloating conservatives over the website's glitches.
He then profiled Lululemon CEO
Chip Wilson for his sexism and racism.
Jon talked with actress
Elizabeth Olsen, and Stephen talked with
12 Years a Slave director
Steve McQueen.