John Bolton, The Surprise

John Bolton was Jon Stewart’s guest tonight on Comedy Central. It is difficult to imagine a stranger juxtaposition. Stewart had been relentless in his attacks and, quite honestly, former United Nations Ambassador Bolton was an easy target.

The Secretariat building in New York has 38 stories. If you lost ten stories today, it wouldn’t make a bit of difference.

Why did John Bolton agree to appear? He had to have known how Stewart had skewered him and how the audience would respond to his mere presence?

Now I know. Bolton has cojones!

He was every bit Stewart’s equal in the debate. He was glib. He was prepared. He gave no ground. He was very impressive in the heat of verbal battle.

As the segment ended, it was clear he had won Jon Stewart’s respect.

He was not the caricature Stewart expected. He surely wasn’t the caricature I expected.

2 thoughts on “John Bolton, The Surprise”

  1. I have to disagree with you on this one. I thought Bolton came off very badly. To me John Bolton came off as very as stubborn and arrogant. Since he was the UN Ambassador, I doubt Stewart was expecting a caricature in Bolton. I do, however, applaud him for going on the show.

  2. At the risk of looking a nut, the titanic meeting of Bolton and Stewart was an important battle in the left/right media wars that may deserve notice in textbooks years from now.

    Left political media has had a really good 18 months. Stewart, Colbert, and Olbermann are on the ascent. The interview where the right wing host control room had been stable of the right, but over the past months these three men have advanced interview technique to where the left is doing very well.

    Bolton may have come to the Daily Show looking to demonstrate his (and the right’s) winning interview techniques. Bolton as Stewart demonstrated the next night used the —

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