S14.E22: Frank Luntz, Viggo Mortensen, Jelani Cobb, S.E. Cupp, and Eliot Spitzer

[33kaitykaity]

Luntz and Bill had a great back-and-forth.  Ms. Cupp was surprisingly rational and didn't do a KellyAnne Conway and spout nothing but RW talking points.  FLoved seeing spitzer again.  And I still love Aragorn.  

Oh, and Overtime.  

 

Edited July 16, 2016 by 33kaitykaity

[Gemma Violet]

I wasn't familiar with Viggo Mortensen.  I find him intriguing.

[33kaitykaity]

Aragorn, LOTR -- swoon...

[ruby24]

Frank Lutz is completely, 100% full of shit. I thought it was funny how on overtime he said that Bill kicked his ass though. I guess he was feeling very defensive at the beginning. Why bother to be defensive about Trump though?

I SO AGREE with Bill that the Trump kids running the show is looking like a banana republic! This is starting to freak me out actually, I was totally noticing this in the last few days too. His kids are making the decisions, running the "campaign" (whatever he has of one), telling him what to do. Oh my god, this is what it would look like if he's the president (god forbid).

He won't listen to anyone, no Republicans or politicians, so for his "general election" campaign he seriously turned to his kids and that's it! That's fucking scary. Bill's right, we wouldn't be electing him, we'd be electing his fucking kids. Because Trump wouldn't want to DO the job if he had it, because it's too hard and everything would be run by those kids of his. And who the fuck are they to have all this power? I'm officially terrified again.

[sadiegirl]

I'm trying to stay away from the news - too depressing, so had not heard anything about Bush.  Did he really 'dance' like that in Dallas?  And why didn't Laura say something to him?  It looked so out of place.

Viggo is a thoughtful man.  He should run for office. 

I want Bill to ask every Republican that comes on whether they want Trump to win.  I think that would be an interesting question.  And if they say no, which I would hope most knowledgeable people would, then ask why are they supporting him?  If you'd rather he doesn't win and are still working to get him elected, what does that say about you?

[wknt3]

7 hours ago, ruby24 said:

Frank Lutz is completely, 100% full of shit. I thought it was funny how on overtime he said that Bill kicked his ass though. I guess he was feeling very defensive at the beginning. Why bother to be defensive about Trump though?

Because Luntz is an intelligent guy who realizes that he has played a role in creating a candidate who is completely unsuited to be POTUS and undermines his long term agenda. His emphasis on branding, media, etc. over substance has been a big part of creating the monster. And he also sees himself being passed by - if you are a huckster purely out to promote your personal brand or a true believer in a gerrymandered district who sees no need for traditional spin there is no need Luntz's particular skills. He will be fine, but there is nothing that will make a smart guy who has been at the peak of his profession more defensive than being overtaken by trends and people building on his work and doing it better. Just look at how defensive Bill gets whenever Jon Stewart and his protegees comes up even though there's no rational reason for such an attitude.

[IndianPaintbrush]

I'm not familiar with Luntz at all.  He did not come off as intelligent last night.  The shoes were his first mistake.  But at least he admitted that if the election were held today, Clinton would win.

I heartily endorse New Rules.  I absolutely hate this expectation many employers have that their employees should be available to answer emails 24/7.  The line between work and home life doesn't exist anymore.

[iMonrey]

The interview with Luntz was definitely the highlight. Bill probably got off on the wrong foot by saying the reason Americans are angry is because "people like you keep electing Republicans." I thought that was a cheap shot and the reason why Luntz was so defensive. On the other hand, Luntz was probably also defensive because his own polling tells him Trump won't win. 

Bill did a good job calling him out dismissing everything Bill said as a joke. Nothing coming out of Bill's mouth was funny or played for laughs, aside from the cheap shot and the comment about his (admittedly ridiculous) shoes. The idea that "millions" (or did he even say "tens of millions?") of working class American are voting for Trump was preposterous. Which ones? Latinos certainly won't, nor will black people, nor will Muslims, nor will most women. Who does that leave? White, disaffected, low-income working class males - the same group that always votes for the Republican anyway. And Hillary's problem is that she isn't "genuine?" And Trump is? C'mon.

The panel was reasonable if unengaging. I always dread the appearance of S.E. Cupp but she was surprisingly tame, mostly because it's clear she does not support Trump. I'm not a big fan of the celebrity guest coming out to plug his latest movie, but Viggo was surprisingly thoughtful.

Wednesday's show has Michael Moore, Dan Savage and Joy Reid. That ought to be good.

[Foghorn Leghorn]

I enjoyed last night's show.  I am in love with Viggo!  I loved his intelligence in addition to his gentle manliness!  Luntz with those shoes?!  Unbelievable!  S.E. gets a real kick out of Bill!  

[GHScorpiosRule]

Not only is Luntz full of SHIT, but he's a raging asshole on top of it. If it had been anyone else but him, I'd've had a laugh at Bill being cut off/interrupted and not given a chance to answer his questions, since Bill does that all.the.time. to most of his interview guests. But because it was that bloated Luntz, I was peeved. And kept yelling at my teevee for Luntz to STFU and let Bill get a word in edgewise. I did snort when Bill turned back and asked for the Strawman to come forward.

Cupp annoys me to no end, and I don't care how...non-aggressive or stoopid she was last night, but her insistence that Pence was  "good man" with "good values" made me want to hurl. And her giggle? laugh? whatever noise she was making that was supposed to be laughter sounded like someone trying not to cry and snort at the same time. To my ears it sounded like: uh-haunhaunha in sets of three.

I love Elliot Spitzer. Wish he would come on this show more often.

Has Jelani Cobb been on this show before? I wanted to hear more from him. And color me stupid and ignorant, because I really wanted to know if that's what he was saying, but I was tired and in pain (unrelated to anything on this show), but was Cobb saying that all of those folks who were eulogizing the cops that were killed, if all these people did the same for ALL the Black men and women who have been killed by cops, then maybe it would be more praiseworthy? (the last word is my word. I can't recall what Cobb said), instead of the media, all of it, trying to justify the cops' killings by questioning the backgrounds of the murdered, their police records, etc. That the files and records of the cops weren't brought up or questioned. The reactions aren't...equal, I guess?

I also loved New Rules. I miss the days when I wasn't paranoid and felt the need to answer any emails I got during the weekend or when I was on vacation. Then again, in those days, cell phones were fairly new, and there was no email or internet or wifi to enable such stuff. I remember, three years ago, when I went to India, I was SO RELIEVED, because I would have NO ACCESS to email or voicemail, unless the firm wanted to foot my phone bill which would have quadrupled if I asked for the global plan. So for three weeks, I was able to enjoy my time with friends, family and playing tourist. I really do wish the U.S. would make it a law. Not just for companies, but for law firms as well. Yeah, I work at the latter.

Off to check out, Overtime.

[attica]

I agreed with Bill in his disapproval of the bomb-laden robot. In my opinion, the DPD's claim that 'we had no other choice' is specious. I get Spitzer's preference to sacrifice a robot rather than a human, but there are always other choices. Like, for instance, waiting. Just waiting. There didn't need to be a rush. They had him cornered. At some point, he would have fallen asleep! So with Cobb's suggestion about a tear-gas cannister, or other non-lethal measure. It just sounded to me like the aphorism about the carpenter solving every problem with a hammer. Got a new toy? Hey, lookee here! A situation the toy can address! Nothing else can be done! 

I also agreed with Bill (yikes! twice in one week!) about the predictability of the events in Dallas. History teaches us this: at some point, the pitchforks, torches, and guillotines come out for the oppressors, and all the tut-tutting of 'violence isn't the answer' misses the point altogether and derails us from the work we should be doing. Again, Cobb's point that our reactions of praising the murdered police and vilifying the murdered POC was particularly salient.

1 hour ago, wknt3 said:

Luntz is an intelligent guy who realizes that he has played a role in creating a candidate who is completely unsuited to be POTUS and undermines his long term agenda.

Hmm. I don't know that I agree with the second part. I don't think Luntz takes any of the blame for Trumpism; he's happy to blame the Dems for being divisive. Or, you know, all those pesky voters who don't know what's best for me, um, I mean them. His point about Bernie being a better Dem candidate flies precisely in the face of the will of the actual D primary voters.

At my job, one of our outsourced vendors introduced a 2nd party verification system for online access to their system, which we use everyday. IOW, not only do we need a password, we need a smart phone with their app installed in order to get on. Nobody from my office has downloaded the app, since none of us have company-provided phones, nor is any part of our personal phone bill picked up by our company. The vendors are mystified by our resistance. Why would we want separate work phones? How inconvenient would that be?! (Ask Dept. of State!)  Sigh. 

[ruby24]

SE Cupp really bothered me when she said we were never as divided under other presidents.

First of all, this issue with the police has always existed. The difference is now that the curtains are drawn back because of social media, cameras and cell phones, so now white people get to see what's been going on forever, and outrage is more easily spread to mass groups of people across the country.

So fuck her for wanting to go back to the more "unified" days when people like her could pretend things were better because this stuff wasn't happening. IT WAS, you moron. And the Black Lives Matter movement would occur under whoever was president at this time, because these incidents can't be hidden anymore.

The danger is in not being able to affect change in policy fast enough. If we don't do anything about this these things will keep happening and more violence in response to it will probably occur, like Bill said.

[attica]

33 minutes ago, ruby24 said:

she said we were never as divided under other presidents.

Reached for comment, the ghost of Abe Lincoln said, "Pundit, please."

[ruby24]

I liked Viggo, so intelligent, cool, and seemed reasonable on the show last night. Then I read an interview he just gave to The Daily Beast where he says Hillary's as bad as Trump and he's voting for Jill Stein. And that even though he understands doing that is basically a vote for Trump, he's doing it because we should have a parliamentary system anyway (dude! that's NEVER happening!).

Oh, Viggo. Why do I have to find these things out about people I like? All I can see in them now is another Tom Morello/Susan Sarandon, people who revealed on Real Time that their privilege allows them to be above everything that actually matters, because THEIR life is obviously going to be great no matter what.

For God's sake, think of the Supreme Court! This is it- with Scalia gone and very likely Kennedy during Hillary's term, this is the opportunity to shape things for the next generation. That's going to change everything with a Democrat appointing justices, how do they not see that??

[Queena]

Cupp was a bit more palatable last night. She's usually so annoying, maybe the Republicans nominating Trump will take some of the hot air out of their pundits. 

Luntz seems upset. 

[ruby24]

I agree with Bill that it's depressing how we now know for sure that 40% of the people in this country will vote for literally ANYTHING that has the R next to the name on the ballot. Anything.

But I still have hope that all this early poll stuff is mostly noise, because a lot of them seem all over the place, some with Hillary dominating, others tied, others with a small lead.

And when you look back in history early polls were pretty wacky in some elections- in 1988 Dukakis actually lead HW by double digits at one point, and we know how that turned out in the end. Another bright spot is that Trump seems stuck at 40% or lower- he's not rising. Hillary bounces around all over the place, going from over 50% to high 40's to low 40's, etc. I think there's a greater chance her support will solidify.

[wknt3]

2 hours ago, attica said:

Hmm. I don't know that I agree with the second part. I don't think Luntz takes any of the blame for Trumpism; he's happy to blame the Dems for being divisive. Or, you know, all those pesky voters who don't know what's best for me, um, I mean them. His point about Bernie being a better Dem candidate flies precisely in the face of the will of the actual D primary voters.

Admittedly that's largely speculation based on how defensive and depressed he seemed to be. We'll probably never know since he's a master at spinning and BSing us. As far as Bernie is concerned I'm sure he'd much prefer the candidate who has not been consistently demonized and attacked for 20 years and that every politician in America already knows what they want to say about  - it's much better for his business.

2 hours ago, ruby24 said:

SE Cupp really bothered me when she said we were never as divided under other presidents.

Yeah me too. Even if you expect us to be completely historically ignorant and forget about Lincoln, LBJ, Nixon, etc. I'm only in my 30s but I'm old enough to remember when you were saying that same thing about Clinton!

[attica]

Another thing that Luntz said that struck me (and he's not the first, by any means) was equating the attack in Nice to an attack here in the US. I understand what with global 24-hour news coverage something like that feels local, but it really and truly isn't. France has local and national police, officers in Interpol (or whatever it's called these days), plus their own military. And yet Trump/Gingrich think that since Nice (or Paris, or Belgium, or Istanbul) is attacked, we should ban Muslims. Besides being unconstitutional, it's just plain wacky. Hows about letting the local jurisdiction handle it?

[ottoDbusdriver]

Overtime was really short this week for some reason -- barely 5 minutes.

Liked the 25 Things you didn't know about Trump.

On 7/16/2016 at 3:14 AM, ruby24 said:

I SO AGREE with Bill that the Trump kids running the show is looking like a banana republic! This is starting to freak me out actually, I was totally noticing this in the last few days too. His kids are making the decisions, running the "campaign" (whatever he has of one), telling him what to do. Oh my god, this is what it would look like if he's the president (god forbid).

And Bill was bang on that they aren't just electing Trump -- that they are electing his kids since his kids are running the show, and Don Jr./Ivanka would become the Uday/Kusay of a Trump administration probably as Secretary of State (so they could make great deals) and Treasury Secretary (so they could loot it) respectively, along with Tiffany as White House Press Secretary.  Hell, Baron will likely be in charge of DHS.

[paigow]

5 hours ago, ottoDbusdriver said:

And Bill was bang on that they aren't just electing Trump -- 

JFK made Bobby AG, so Trump gets a pass on nepotism. Spinning the campaign as Ivanka vs. Hillary may actually get him elected. First female de facto POTUS vs. First female elected POTUS

[AuntiePam]

I'd never heard of Luntz before this, and was annoyed at Bill's obvious disrespect for him and dismissal/disagreement with anything he said.  Maybe if I had some background on the guy, I'd understand Bill's behavior.  Because I had no background -- tell me why I should hate this guy! --  Bill just came off as a jerk.  All I could figure out was that the guy has worked for FOX news. 

Loved Viggo.  What a wonderful voice. 

[Hanahope]

17 hours ago, paigow said:

JFK made Bobby AG, so Trump gets a pass on nepotism.

Well, before becoming AG, RFK worked in the DoJ and was legal counsel to several Senate committees.  So its not like RFK had absolutely no political or government experience before becoming AG, a post for which at least he had some groundwork experience.

[33kaitykaity]

11 hours ago, AuntiePam said:

I'd never heard of Luntz before this, and was annoyed at Bill's obvious disrespect for him and dismissal/disagreement with anything he said.  Maybe if I had some background on the guy, I'd understand Bill's behavior.  Because I had no background -- tell me why I should hate this guy! --  Bill just came off as a jerk.  All I could figure out was that the guy has worked for FOX news. 

Luntz is best known for his "perversion" of language to benefit the ReThuglican political agenda, i.e., death tax rather than estate tax, Orwellian manipulation of language is a good thing.

[paigow]

2 hours ago, Hanahope said:

Well, before becoming AG, RFK worked in the DoJ and was legal counsel to several Senate committees.  So its not like RFK had absolutely no political or government experience before becoming AG, a post for which at least he had some groundwork experience.

Was he the BEST candidate available? Not saying he was unqualified...but were there better choices? 

[Hanahope]

11 minutes ago, paigow said:

Was he the BEST candidate available? Not saying he was unqualified...but were there better choices? 

That could have been.  Still, at least RFK had qualifications,unlike the Trump spawn.

[lovinbob]

On 7/16/2016 at 10:25 AM, sadiegirl said:

I'm trying to stay away from the news - too depressing, so had not heard anything about Bush.  Did he really 'dance' like that in Dallas?  And why didn't Laura say something to him?  It looked so out of place.

He really did. I watched it live. I am no Bush supporter but I've been trying to give him the benefit of the doubt and say he was moved by the beginning of the song, which is not necessarily upbeat but is very stirring. This particular arrangement begins like a military march. He seemed to calm down a bit in the second or third verse ("In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea ..." which is much more subdued. But then the song concludes with a flourish and he pepped up again.

A few thoughts occurred to me, between cringing. I wondered if he was drunk. I wondered if he might be losing it somewhat. But where I've landed is that it has been a long time that Bush has been out of the public eye, and he has been somewhat shunned by all--republicans and democrats alike. So I bet it felt good to be embraced in such an important setting, representing Texas and the US government.

I also think, in his way, he felt good to be joining hands with Michelle Obama—and by extension, President Obama. As a former president, and the son of a former president, he has a fairly unique appreciation for the power ex-presidents can have to unite across party lines.

I probably sound like a Bush apologist, which I am not. But I think this particular performance can't just be chalked up to the fact that he's a dimwit.

[Hanahope]

I think he just likes the song and felt moved to embrace it, as it were, and kindof forgot where he was and what was going on.

Of course, if it had been Obama doing that, he would have been excoriated for 'disrespecting' the officers.

Edited July 18, 2016 by Hanahope

[iMonrey]

Quote

 Did he really 'dance' like that in Dallas?  And why didn't Laura say something to him?  It looked so out of place.

The look on Michelle Obama's face was priceless. 

Quote

I'd never heard of Luntz before this, and was annoyed at Bill's obvious disrespect for him and dismissal/disagreement with anything he said.  Maybe if I had some background on the guy, I'd understand Bill's behavior.  Because I had no background -- tell me why I should hate this guy! --  Bill just came off as a jerk.

I did say that Bill got off on the wrong foot, but Luntz was trying to spin everything Bill said as a joke. "I don't make the jokes, I'm not just trying to get a laugh." That's his specialty - demonizing the opposite opinion by dismissing it as invalid. Bill was trying to make valid points and bring up specifics and statistics and Luntz essentially implied everything Bill said was a joke to get laughs and not real facts. When Bill named a specific statistic Luntz replied "79% of statistics are made up on the spot." I'm reasonably certain Bill didn't make that statistic up on the fly (I don't even remember what it was in reference to). He has a staff of researchers to give him this information and he knows he'll be called on it in social media if he gets it wrong. 

So the issue here is that Luntz was not interested in addressing anything genuine Bill had to say. He was defensive, perhaps understandably, but his tactics of deflection were on clear display. 

[sistermagpie]

20 minutes ago, iMonrey said:

So the issue here is that Luntz was not interested in addressing anything genuine Bill had to say. He was defensive, perhaps understandably, but his tactics of deflection were on clear display. 

Also he kept claiming divisiveness was the big problem while repeating over and over that "elites" like Bill and everyone in the government now and everyone in the audience were dumping on and laughing at the salt-of-the-earth blue collar folks that he adored and that's why they were voting for Trump. He even called out the camera man and the cleaning staff and said "You know Bill Maher hates you, right? Bet you all piss in his coffee whenever you can! You're all voting for Trump because you hate everyone in this audience!" His whole narrative is about how THEY are attacking THEM just like Bill was allegedly attacking him any time he opened his mouth.

[ganesh]

I thought the show was off this week. I missed all the action.

Quote

Cupp was a bit more palatable last night.

Now I *really* have to watch. I can't even comprehend. 

[HalcyonDays]

Kudos and much love to all those who deserve such brilliant love - who kept/are keeping this thread sane, and kept discussing the actual TV show, as opposed to rambling /delving into general politics, which I totally understand why cause insanity, but unfortunately is not accepted in our semi-limited Thread Rules.

Truly, you guys are the best!

[ganesh]

It annoys me when people insist on being called doctor when introduced. Frank seems like that guy. 

I've seen several of Luntz pieces on focus groups, and he's not actually bad in those. He seemed in a snit in the interview. I don't get his point in the interview. He seemed to be throwing everything out to see what sticks. 

You aren't going to out snit Bill on his own show. Though I think it's massively condescending to tell a comedian their opinion doesn't count because they just tell jokes. They had that on the show before with that horrible woman. 

[candall]

On ‎7‎/‎16‎/‎2016 at 0:03 AM, Gemma Violet said:

I wasn't familiar with Viggo Mortensen.  I find him intriguing.

He's pretty darn impressive--speaks several languages fluently and makes non-English speaking movies, had a book of poetry published (before he was famous,) has several CDs out where he plays with a jazz group.  A softie like me loves that he bonds with the horses he rides in his movies, buys them and takes them home with him to Spain.

He painted his artist character's murals in A Perfect Murder.  Okay, overachiever, settle down.

I read The Beast article--no small task since it took about 30 minutes for that ridiculously busy page to buffer and load.  He does recommend Jill Stein, for people determined to vote for a woman.  He was a big Bernie supporter and, as noted above, doesn't hold Clinton in higher esteem than Trump, so he's going to vote The Green Party (which is Jill Stein) in spite of the ramifications.  His position is that change doesn't occur unless someone starts somewhere.

I don't know why I condemned Sarandon for being short-sighted, yet feel somewhat inclined to give Mortensen a pass for long-long range thinking.  Maybe it was all Sarandon's incredibly annoying hedging and coy evasion.

********

As far as parliamentary democracy, I would love to live long enough to see the Greens and the Libertarians et al. gain enough strength to force cooperation and compromise--as opposed to the two behemoths dug inextricably into their 'R' and 'D' trenches, too self-serving or frightened to poke their heads up and take a look around.

(Haven't most of us here been hoping all along that the Trump upshot will be the splintering of the GOP, separating the conservatives from the freaks?  Step one.)

*********************

ETA:  I posted a topic spot for the latest Circus, The Veeps.  Very excited to see those guys, Bee and Maher this week.

Edited July 19, 2016 by candall

[ganesh]

On 7/16/2016 at 0:34 PM, ruby24 said:

Oh, Viggo. Why do I have to find these things out about people I like? All I can see in them now is another Tom Morello/Susan Sarandon, people who revealed on Real Time that their privilege allows them to be above everything that actually matters, because THEIR life is obviously going to be great no matter what.

For God's sake, think of the Supreme Court! This is it- with Scalia gone and very likely Kennedy during Hillary's term, this is the opportunity to shape things for the next generation. That's going to change everything with a Democrat appointing justices, how do they not see that??

I'm surprised Bill didn't bring that up with him. I read the same thing about him voting for Stein, and I was hoping he'd explain himself. I don't think I would lump him in with Morello because I found Morello terribly ignorant, whether willfully or not. At least VM seems thoughtful. 

However, it's a lot easier to vote for Jill Stein if you can pay for healthcare essentially out of pocket. What happens to the millions of people when the ACA is repealed? In the larger context, scotus is definitely looming over this election. It's hard to predict how any justice will ultimately behave, but I'd probably like the odds of Clinton appointments. 

[attica]

If Viggo lives in Spain, he gets those sweet Bernie-type benefits already. Which makes it hard for me to see his positions as anything besides 'I got mine, you're on your own', just from the left.

[ganesh]

He was right about talk radio though. I drive a lot around the West/Northwest, and it's the same narrative from all the shows, down to the phrasing. 

[Foghorn Leghorn]

Maher said he was doing some shows covering the convention but so far nothing on HBO Canada, anyone know?

[SoapDoc]

I think he will be on Wednesday and Thursday with convention coverage.

[Foghorn Leghorn]

Thx, will check it out SoapDoc!!

[wknt3]

Saw this article from a couple years ago today on a politics site. http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2014/01/the-agony-of-frank-luntz/282766/ It's about Frank Luntz and gives some great background as to why Bill hates his work and relates to our previous discussion as to his self awareness regarding his responsibility for the current state of the GOP versus external blame. Apparently his depression/disillusionment/disgust is not new at all, but he's been better at not showing it on TV. 

[AuntiePam]

Re Viggo voting for Jill Stein -- I've heard several people from Blue states say they'll vote for any third party candidate who shows up on the ticket.  They reason that since their state is sure to go for HRC, their vote won't help Trump.

[SlackerInc]

On 7/16/2016 at 2:14 AM, ruby24 said:

Frank Lutz is completely, 100% full of shit. I thought it was funny how on overtime he said that Bill kicked his ass though. I guess he was feeling very defensive at the beginning. Why bother to be defensive about Trump though?

I have found Luntz interesting for years, going back to the '90s.  He's an "evil genius", as Maher says, but his focus groups are very interesting for a politics junkie.  However, I found this interview very unpleasant, and I wondered if Bill was being disingenuous when he insisted it was "great TV".  But given how many people here seem to have found it a highlight, maybe not!  I don't get that.

 

On 7/18/2016 at 0:22 PM, lovinbob said:

He really did. I watched it live. I am no Bush supporter but I've been trying to give him the benefit of the doubt and say he was moved by the beginning of the song, which is not necessarily upbeat but is very stirring. This particular arrangement begins like a military march. He seemed to calm down a bit in the second or third verse ("In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea ..." which is much more subdued. But then the song concludes with a flourish and he pepped up again.

A few thoughts occurred to me, between cringing. I wondered if he was drunk. I wondered if he might be losing it somewhat. But where I've landed is that it has been a long time that Bush has been out of the public eye, and he has been somewhat shunned by all--republicans and democrats alike. So I bet it felt good to be embraced in such an important setting, representing Texas and the US government.

I also think, in his way, he felt good to be joining hands with Michelle Obama—and by extension, President Obama. As a former president, and the son of a former president, he has a fairly unique appreciation for the power ex-presidents can have to unite across party lines.

I probably sound like a Bush apologist, which I am not. But I think this particular performance can't just be chalked up to the fact that he's a dimwit.

I wondered at first if he was getting senile, or was drunk or high.  But then I saw footage of his speech, and that seems to rule those out.  So I would then say that he was just being himself: a dumbass douchebag.

Don't forget about the live shows Wed. and Thurs. this week and next!  11p.m. Eastern; and if you have HBO Now like I do, you can either watch them on Bill's Facebook page the next day, or catch them live (even if you don't subscribe to any form of HBO) on his YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/RealTime

[Queena]

I'm back on the cable crack, so I'll be sure to tune in tonight. I just wish that he was on every night. If only I couldn't have heard his thoughts on Melania's speech. 

[IvySpice]

Quote

I'd never heard of Luntz before this, and was annoyed at Bill's obvious disrespect for him

It was a total asshole move to invite somebody on the show and then spend so long making fun of their (idiotic) shoes. Is that supposed to be entertaining for us? His shoes are not the damn point. If Luntz is evil, talk to him about that. This isn't the worst dressed list. Presumably he's there to talk about something besides patriotic sneakers.

Quote

their privilege allows them to be above everything that actually matters, because THEIR life is obviously going to be great no matter what.

Word. Viggo doesn't need Obamacare. I do. Viggo is not going to be sent to war if Trump drags us into some pissing contest with China. He doesn't need to worry about whether he's getting equal pay because of his gender. No one tells him to go back where he came from, despite his foreign-sounding name. So it's pretty easy for him to go on HBO and blow off the importance of this election.