Basically the joke was on everyone who wanted to make  vast analysis of the Jon Stewart / Stephen Colbert “Rally to Restore Sanity” / “March to Keep Fear Alive” event.  In the end, the highlight of the event was the dualing Cat Stevens “Peace Train” versus Ozzy Osbourne “Crazy Train“.  But I understand some people are partial to R2D2 teaching Stephen Colbert a lesson in tolerance.

The contradictions of Stewart’s persona remain.  Detached Irony is beating up on headfast Earnestness.  The foray into, for instance, debunking Jim Cramer is followed by the self-aware call-back to make fun of his own slide into manipulative Populism.  The virtues of “Civility” are over-emphacized and fall into a status quo accpetance that Moderation implies. 

And Ozzy Osbourne is sharing the stage with Cat Stevens.

In the lead up to this, I read and heard a quote from Ana Marie Cox deriding this.  My thought was “Ana Marie Cox is the LAST person to comment on the trivilization of politics into ironic detached pop culture.”  But the article it was quoted from was acceptable in its wider ambivalence. 
If our politicians are cynical creatures, you have to drive in with a certain cynicism.

The Democratic Party was floating about, trying to grab this part of the Democratic Base into phone banking for various mid-term candidates.  I guess this ends up as a counter-balance for any liberal uneasy about their ironic detachment — have your fun, now plunge into your earnest foray into electoral political activism.

Regarding the Obama appearance on Jon Stewart earlier this week, what floated out of into wider sound-byte circulation was Obama’s use of the word “Heckuva Job” to describe the Treasury Secretary, Obama’s clarification to “Yes We Can, But” — the “but” evoking laughter, and Stewart addressing Obama as “Dude”.  The Press Secretary was asked about that last one, with the approrpiate response “He’s been called worse”.
In the end, We Are the Change We Have Been Waiting For.  News came out this last week that Everyone’s going to have Diabetes in 50 years due to our consumption of Soda.  We can change this by drinking less soda and more milk, and feeding less soda to your kids.  You are the Change you have been Waiting For.

…
What do you want from me?  I don’t have much problem with “Yes We Can, but” because I never understood a part of Obama’s appeal, outside of clever marketing.  The campaign runs into the standard “filtered through various interests” into a lowest common denominator (you try to appeal to 50 plus 1 percent of the public) that runs into a Presidency managing the Contradictions.  The result is that in the mid-terms, everyone who voted against you is voting, and not everyone who voted for you is.  And so…

Hm.  I expect some Feminist Blogs to point out that the women are standing in the back here.  Which may just as well be, because the only two winners are Rand Paul and Marco Rubio.   Meg Whitman and Sharron Angle are sure fire losers this Tuesday — and as near as I can tell, Meg Whitman Crashed No Party.

So the Time Magazine cover becomes a weird bit of Fiction.

I guess we await to see the 2010 version of one of these covers — one is the 1994 cover, the other the 2006 cover after the mid-term party take-overs.

The perils of Stewart’s message, and the uneasiness of part of the voicing.  Then again, I have no real interest framing… as we await the coming Heath Shuler versus Nancy Pelosi Party leader fight, with a Shuler promising to move into the Mainstream of being stomped to death by an Elephant.

I heard a promo clip for Mark Levin — mostly summed up as “Rarw Rarw Rawr” — where he shouted off about the Anti-Americans and Communists — more so than anyone else in the History of the Republic — surrounding Obama.  The 2010 Election results will be like the 1946 election results, I guess.

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