Jon repeatedly distinguishes between the noise-makers at both extremes of the political spectrum and “most of the rest of us” here in the middle. What both the 2006 midterm election and the upcoming 2008 election season has hopefully done is pushed us quieter middle-folk to be louder in our middleness, working to find common ground and bridges between those a little further out on either end, thereby creating a larger, stronger middle. I think both Jon and Stephen, in their individual, very distinct way, are helping us middlers find our voice.

Or maybe I’m just being blindly idealistic. (Sheepishly steps down from soapbox, wondering how he%! I got up there in the first place.)

[Hee hee - reCAPTCHA: skeptical Mrs. Oh, the irony!]

Also, his show probably appeals to a wider audience since it does not follow as narrow a political path and branches out to non-controversial subject matter such as the dance-off or Portrait of Stephen.

I think of him as a very unifying figure who can bring liberals and conservatives together. Maybe that’s just me.

A very interesting conclusion drawn by the book, and one that didnt actually hit me at all until I read it (among the many high-falootin philosophy-major words that I dont understand/know), is that Jon isnt arguing for democrats/liberals and that hes against republicans/conservatives, but that he is trying to set and encourage honest debate. The book talks about how he is equipping young people today, who are then compared to the young people in Socrates’ (or was it Plato’s) day, to engage in debate from both sides of the issues, and be able to intelligently identify the pro/con/true/false of each argument.

I bet David Letterman would never be able to go toe-to-toe with Jon and Stephen!

agreed. I had always assumed that pretty much all tds viewers are tcr viewers. Although I can imagine a bit more of the conservative crowd tuning in to Stephen; drawing my ‘conclusion’ based off of Tom Delay’s willingness to go on, and Fox News Morning Friends* using clips of the show as material (I guess i just cant imagine them using tds clips, not that I watch it)

* (or whatever the show’s name is; I prefer to think of it as “The fox morning show thats not Good Morning America”………….

I dont really watch gma either…)

…. dud joke, even I think so

- I think that’s the “Elite” spelling…

Way to edit Harvard! :D

Why is it that I tend to like comedians that have multiple personalities…? What is it about borderline schizophrenia (other than the fact that I’m pretty sure I’m at that point…)?