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Texas Governor Rick Perry visits ‘The Daily Show’
Was that weird or was it just me?
What Texas Governor Rick Perry and Jon Stewart engaged in on “The Daily Show” on Comedy Central Monday night was less of a conversation and more of an alternating series of statements.
Stewart announced his guest at the top of the show: “Apparently he found out that once, in my youth, I messed with Texas. He’s here to exact his revenge.”
A seemingly uncomfortable Perry seemed intent on giving long-winded, anecdotal answers sometimes only tangentially related to the questions while Stewart seemed to barely listen to his guest and, instead, seemed to be searching for anything funny he could draw out of the segment.
“What has you fed up, succinctly?” Stewart began the interview, referring to Perry’s new book “Fed Up: Our Fight to Save America from Washington.”
“Watching Washington tell the states how to run their business,” Perry answered. “All the way down from whether you put too much salt on your food or all the way up to … incandescent light bulbs in your house. I mean think about that —” Perry seemed to stop in mid sentence, looked his host in the eye and nodded.
“Wait,” Stewart replied, “the salt part or the light bulb part?”
“Should they be able to tell you how much lead can be in your paint or how much salmonella can be in your … lights?” Stewart asked while Perry talked over him, launching into an anecdote about Texas cleaning up its air and the Obama administration trying to take over the permitting.
Stewart then asked Perry what happened to George W. Bush when he went to Washington, an apt question to ask the author of a book on State vs. Federal government since Bush ran both.
“When they cross the Potomac River, something happens from time to time,” Perry replied, noting that he wasn’t talking only about Bush. “There’s like a virus that is — maybe they spew it out, I don’t know what happens, but …”
“So you believe Washington is a home of, let’s say, a type of Ebola?” Stewart cracked.
“I can’t prove that,” Perry responded.
Perry said that politicians get caught up in the culture of Washington, which he claimed was not true of Governors.
“Every day, we’re right there with our people. We’re talking to them. I mean, I go to church with ‘em, I shop with ‘em.”
“Does that freak them out?” Stewart joked.
After a break, the exchange got a bit more substantial with the pair discussing, among other topics, outsourcing. Perry noted that a number of companies have left California and relocated to Texas this year. Stewart pointed out that as Texas is a pressure valve for the American economy, India could act similarly for the world economy.
“You wanna’ live in India or Texas?” Perry asked.
“For real?” Stewart replied, after an uncomfortable pause. “I really like where I live now. But thank you.”
All in all, the appearance really wasn’t either of the men’s finest moments. Stewart is capable of having substantive, thoughtful discussions with politicians, but it seemed as if he thought that either Perry or the topic of his book was not worthy of that treatment. And the segment didn’t really work as comedy either, with a somewhat stiff Perry failing to join into the kind of fun Stewart was clearly going for.
The extended segment, which did not run on air (but is the last of the clips posted below) was actually the most interesting and substantive portion. Go figure.
What did you think? Did you hear anything new here? Did you at least laugh? Check out the video clips below and sound off in the comments.
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| Rick Perry Pt. 1 | ||||
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| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| Rick Perry Pt. 2 | ||||
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| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| Exclusive - Rick Perry Extended Interview | ||||
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