How could Blagojevich not know?

February 24, 2006

Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich (D) has had some ups and downs lately, but he still has a core group of advisors he can rely on to keep him on track, particularly in this re-election year. Unfortunately, none of them happened to mention what to expect from an interviewer from “The Daily Show.”

Blagojevich says he didn’t realize “The Daily Show” was a comedy spoof of the news when he sat down for an interview that ended up poking fun at the sometimes-puzzled governor.

“It was going to be an interview on contraceptives … that’s all I knew about it,” Blagojevich laughingly told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch in a story for Thursday’s editions. “I had no idea I was going to be asked if I was ‘the gay governor.’ ”

The interview focused on his executive order requiring pharmacies to fill prescriptions for emergency birth control.

Interviewer Jason Jones pretended to stumble over Blagojevich’s name before calling him “Governor Smith.” He urged Blagojevich to explain the contraception issue by playing the role of “a hot 17-year-old” and later asked if he was “the gay governor.”

At one point in the interview, a startled Blagojevich looked to someone off camera and said, “Is he teasing me or is that legit?”

I saw the segment, which ran two weeks ago, and kept asking myself, “Did no one prep this guy?”

February 24, 2006 at 10:55 am

There are many, many times when I watch one of those interviews and wonder how the hell the subject can seemingly have no idea what they are in for. But some of those people are obsure “experts” or small-town mayors and the like. Governors, Senators, etc really should have heard of “The Daiily Show” by now. Certainly their press people and/or staff should know…

Unbelievable. If Blagojevich was a Republican, I’d find this immensely amusing. Since he’s a Democrat, I find it annoying and disappointing. Wake the hell up, people.

I mean, this isn’t like getting blinsided by Stuttering John (from Howard Stern) or some other crank on the phone or at a news conference. You are sitting down for a scheduled interview with a televison show. Does nobody on your staff do anything interms of research or preparation?

I’d vote for this guy. I love people whose lives don’t include much TV. I dislike those for whom “gay” is a ha-ha insult. Maybe I’m more sensitive to this stuff because it’s the culture which includes the soldiers who use sexual violence and homosexual porn in their abuse of prisoners in our detention centers.

Fine, I’m not saying that Blagojevich should be watching the Daily Show or know who the helll Jon Stewart is, but getting blindsided in an interview like that speaks of incompetence at some (even if merely staff-) level.

If he went on “Hannity and Colmes” would he know what to expect?

This was a bad job, not a judgement of him as a governor. I’m sure I’d vote for him too.

A little more laughter and a LOT LESS GUNFIRE is what the world needs in my opinion. Not telling the governor was a good idea if the object was humor which it clearly was. The problem is that his political opponents will probably use it against him and in that case he needed to be prepared. Nothing is ever simple even a good joke played on a governor.

It’s a sign of the times when the wart mouthed righteous can’t even let a joke pass without making something more out of it. If we would only follow their lead think of where it would take us. To the end of humor, unless you think a pack of idiots like them is humorous. They’re funny as in oddball and not the least bit humorous. They get their absolute truths from a hoax telling us all about them: http://www.hoax-buster.org

I saw the segment, and I certainly would not hold it against him if I was one of his constituents. Despite being surprised, he held it together really well. Plus, I thought he was pretty funny. The fact that he can laugh about it now is a plus to me. I agree with Bill; there’s too little humor out there.

Now the whole country knows how clueless our governor is. Even stalwart progressives like me think he’s a joke and are looking for viable alternatives this time out.

While this is funny, I can understand how a governor might be too preoccupied to be aware of a great cable TV show with a comic take on the news. Hell, our president didn’t watch TV enough to realize that New Orleans was being destroyed.

Maybe he does not have cable. You can get a lot of TV in down town Chicago with rabbit ears only.
I think everyone should recognize that Blogo has been way out in front on issues like access to contraceptives and coverage for children’s health care. We should be talking about how he is a good example for a progressive agenda (despite the public fights with his father-in-law).

Just to keep things in perspective, if a Republican vice president can get away with shooting a man in the face with a shotgun without any visible consequences, I don’t think a Democratic governor should have much to worry about for not knowing about a fake news program when it comes visiting.

It should serve as a wake-up call to every other political staff in the country, though: if you don’t want the boss to look like a total dumbass on camera, be sure to explain exactly what “Jon Stewart and The Daily Show” is before they show up!! 😉

So now it’s on to the next burning question: what about the people that Stephen Colbert is interviewing?

I also wondered when I saw it how his staff could have failed to prepare him, but why is this making the news only now? The segment was two weeks ago, so who’s dredging up old news to attack the guy, and why?

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