The Daily Show: September 25, 2007

i too loved the interview with Morales. That's the kind of leader i wish for my home country - someone who cares about what happens to his country and his people.

i too loved the interview with Morales. That's the kind of leader i wish for my home country - someone who cares about what happens to his country and his people.

To echo the general sentiment here (a day late because I'm in the UK) - I thought this was one of the best and most moving interviews I've ever seen on The Daily Show. It was fascinating to hear a politician talk of peace, unity and real change - something we don't hear too often from Western politicians.

I fully admit I was not familiar with Morales or the situation in Boliva but this didn't matter - I was captivated and by the end of those five minutes eager to learn more. Not bad for a short piece on a comedy show.

Funny how Bakkedahl's piece had a translator as well. I noticed a running theme last night.

Problem is that the only reaction people can show to a different approach than their own is fear.

Listening to Morales and trying to understand him spurs the feeling that the way he does things he (or better: his ideas) might want to invade the US to "liberate" it. An indigenous US president, imagine that. An actual indian, president of the US, annexing all resources and channels the profits directly into the governments budget, minimizing the share of the companies who exploit those resources (remember what Bill Maher said in "The Decider"? The Bush administration added "mining" to things that are allowed in a National Park Area)...

And when you feel frightened because of those radical ideas you might think about how people in other countries in the world feel when the US gets there with their idea of free market and democracy and how much it would change the way of life in "their" country... you might wonder no more why those people are the most perfect fertile ground for extremists.

Because you can think that your way is the best all you want, you are still trying to change theirs, and you frighten them. Morales seems to know that. Bush Jr. seems to be totally oblivious of it.

The Daily Show is one of the only places you'll ever see someone like Morales, because the other shows wouldn't deem him important or significant enough. A lot of people get their news from the Daily Show, and it's because Stewart is willing to present new ideas in the form of these interviews.

Listen. Morales was on the show because he represents progressive change in the world. Do you know that he's the first indigenous president to be elected in Bolivia since the conquistadores? That's 500 years, in case you're counting. And, of course, he realized what the Daily Show was. You think the president of every sovereign nation is as out of it as George Bush? He was also clearly nervous. It's actually refreshing to see a relatively natural down-to-earth, serious person who's the President of a nation. We can only hope...

Whoa, whoa. Okay. I think some of you misunderstood me. I wasn't expecting President Morales to make fart jokes or anything. I was just wondering if he knew what kind of show he signed up to be on. Did he think 'The Daily Show' was just another news show or did he understand that it was a comedy program on a cable channel?

Also, I knew he was in NYC for the UN assembly, but I was just wondering why it was the Bolivian president, out of all those other people, that decided to be on TDS. And yes, I checked Google News to see if something big happened in Bolivia recently that I was just totally unaware of. I just saw UN assembly articles.

Not every guest needs to come in to flog their latest project. Jon Stewart has, to his enormous credit, turned the "Daily Show" into something that blends comedy with important political commentary. It would be madness for him not to take advantage of the all the world leaders in town for the UN General Assembly. I'll be the Daily Show bookers were on the phone with every embassy in Manhattan.

I thought the interview was fascinating, and I loved that Morales was able to prevent his own sense of humor from being lost in translation.

Bash, you're right. I fixed Annie's headline.