Sunday, March 15, 2009

Jim Cramer: Skewered by Jon Stewart

Does anyone remember "Joe The Plumber" these days? If you do, you would remember that his simple beef about Obama's raising taxes was turned into a personal attack on him about unpaid taxes and his ambitions to own his own business; including an attack by Obama himself. This is a tactic that is used, all too often, by those who call themselves Democrats. The intent is to divert the attention away from the substance of a message by focusing in on some personal failings of the messenger. It's the age old, "shoot the messenger" tactic.

In the last two weeks, a Democrat and CNBC host, Jim Cramer, has suffered the wrath of his own political party in the same fashion as Joe the Plumber. This time, Jon Stewart of the Daily Show decided to attack Jim Cramer because Cramer dared to support Rick Santelli in his rant against Obama's unfocused resolution of the recession and the bailout of irresponsible borrowers. It was Joe the Plumber, in spades, all over again with Stewart focusing in on Cramer's stock picking faults and not on what he had said about Obama's policies. When it was all over, no one could remember why Cramer warranted the Stewart attack. The only thing that they knew, now, was that Cramer was a buffoon and a failed stock picker.

Jon Stewart is an Obama backer and a Democrat and gives no disclaimer to that fact. He used his nationally televised show as a means to defend Obama by destroying Cramer. He stepped off his normal comedic commentary and his joking about the daily news to launch a leadpipe-to-the- knees attack on Cramer in order to bring him down personally. Prior to that, Stewart had also attacked Rick Santelli. Apparently, Santelli and Cramer's messages were a little too truthful for Stewart to stomach.

I'm not defending Cramer's stock picking abilities or his theatrical way of presenting that information. That's for his viewers to decide. However, I am defending his right to have an opinion about anything that he wants to talk about without his personal failings being put on display to denigrate him. That's what we used to call "Freedom Of Speech" in this country. But, today, the Democrats know they can shut down that freedom by undermining those who speak out against them. Notice that, nowhere, did Jon Stewart ever attempt to defend the policies of Obama that Cramer and Santelli spoke out so passionately against. Instead, he went out with blazing guns to shoot down and destroy Cramer's character. When Cramer finally got on the Stewart show, it was all about Cramer defending himself, personally, against the Stewart attack. Gone, completely, was the whole issue of Obama's policies that started the whole thing. Stewart and the left won and Cramer was intentionally destroyed.

Once again, the left was able to destroy someone. They did it with Joe the Plumber, Rick Santelli, Sarah Palin, Jim Cramer, Juan Williams, and so many others in the past. It is a "James Carville" tactic that grew out of the politics of the 1990's. It works; and, because it works, it is intended to shut down anyone who would oppose them, on the right, or even the left, by tarnishing them personally. In doing so, it leaves a battlefield of strewn carcasses as a warning to anyone else that may speak out against them. Sadly, our dumbed-down American voters can't seem to see through this tactic!

It is interesting that Stewart only stepped out of his comedic element when he thought he seriously needed to defend Obama against Cramer. To me, Jon Stewart is no different than Bill Maher. But the difference is that Bill Maher doesn't hide the fact that he is an avowed liberal and that his humor is intentionally aimed at attacking the right. Stewart is a lot less truthful when he, on a daily basis, intentionally levels a lot more comedic attacks on those on the right than he does those on the left. In essence, he's a sneak! And, that's just my opinion.

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