Jon Stewart-Bill O'Reilly confab Day 2: Is 'Daily Show' host turning Republican?
Jon Stewart was on Bill O鈥橰eilly鈥檚 鈥�O鈥橰eilly Factor鈥� Tuesday for the second night in a row 鈥� and the Comedy Central star sounded more Republican than he generally does on his own show.
Was Mr. Stewart playing to Mr. O鈥橰eilly鈥檚 Fox News audience? Was he overcome by the sheer brilliance of O鈥橰eilly鈥檚 rhetoric? Was he just being nice?
The subject Tuesday was presidential politics. It wasn鈥檛 a continuation of Monday鈥檚 show, when the pair debated whether the rapper Common should have been invited to a White House poetry event.
When O鈥橰eilly asked Stewart if he鈥檇 ever vote for a GOP candidate over President Obama, Stewart said 鈥渟ure ... I don鈥檛 think I would ever be able to convince you of that, but I would.鈥�
Under what circumstances would he bolt the Democratic Party?
鈥淚f I didn鈥檛 have a clear sense of the direction he wanted to move the country and somebody else had a more logical sense of where to take it,鈥� said Stewart.
O鈥橰eilly inquired as to whether there are any current Republican presidential hopefuls that Stewart approves of. The 鈥淒aily Show鈥� host replied that ex-Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty 鈥渟eems like a reasonable, logical individual鈥� and that Mitt Romney 鈥渄idn鈥檛 do terribly for Massachusetts鈥� when he ran the Bay State.
Of course, Stewart also said that Mr. Romney looks like something you would pull out of a box labeled 鈥淧resident鈥� if you opened it, and that 鈥渨e鈥檙e both Mormons, so there you go.鈥�
(That鈥檚 a joke, if you didn鈥檛 know. Stewart was born Jewish.)
Things kind of got livelier from there 鈥� Stewart described candidate Newt Gingrich as someone whose 鈥渉ead is so large you imagine there are great ideas in there ... but it is so big they鈥檙e like free range ideas.鈥� When O鈥橰eilly asked him what he thought of Sarah Palin, he said, 鈥淚鈥檓 sorry. My ear piece just went out.鈥� If there is a candidate he would endorse now, it would be fellow Comedy Central star Stephen Colbert, said Stewart.
As for Donald Trump, 鈥淗e puts his name on everything he owns. The only other people that do that are 6-year-olds,鈥� said Stewart.
(Yes, Mr. Trump is not running, but will that stop us lamestreamers from talking about him? Actually, we believe the show was taped prior to Trump鈥檚 drop-out announcement.)
In the end, it was clear that Stewart is not turning Republican. As O鈥橰eilly put it, Stewart in the past has criticized Obama 鈥渙nly when he didn鈥檛 do some far left thing you wanted.鈥�
鈥淭his is just a treasure trove for you, this presidential race 鈥� for you and your 18,000 writers,鈥� O鈥橰eilly concluded.
