Stephen Hayes more than held his own with Tim Robbins, and Tim wasn't too pleased to have his "facts" challenged by a man that wrote a book on VP Cheney. Michel Martin also surprised me a great deal. She must have a child that is now a teenager, or she's been mugged lately (I hope not, though). Whatever it is, she did not sound like a liberal on that show.
There were very few laughs following the "joke" about Baby Fatima.
All in all, an interesting hour of television. It appears to me that Bill better change his shtick, because he's not going to have Dubya to kick around much longer.
I'm not a political scientist, but the audience reaction last night was indicative of the national mood. The average American can see some progress being made with the surge, and they're willing to give it at least six more months. Jokes made at the expense of our soldiers will not fare well, because the upper echelons of the chain of command screwed up in Iraq, not our soldiers.
Bill Maher's shelf life will be expired by January 2009. He's rode the vitriolic hatred of Dubya (from the left) for the past six years. He's gone to that well so many times, he'll have nothing left to shout about when Dubya goes back to Crawford.
You are right. The laughs were few and far between, during the part I watched. Tim Robbins didn’t go unchallenged did he. That was interesting. The male person you mentioned had his facts handy and beat him over the head with them.
As you stated, the NPR woman seemed to be a thinker. She wasn’t going to be led down any path she didn’t want to be, and she actually made some intelligent observations. She did not back Maher much, and actually challenged his assumpitons several times, with what I thought were some fairly reasoned comments, again for someone from NPR.
Did you catch her offense at Maher’s claim that he used racial flattery to get laid after the show. She took him on over that and wouldn’t let go, reverting to it several times later in the show.