John Kerry on Real Time this Friday

Just heard Maher say he would be on by satellite.

questions. JK I'm sure will have great answers ready. 'Course, I'd love to see him on the panel, but I'll take the interview.

:popcorn:

Now if only he'd do Olbermann!

It would make all the difference in the world.

Can you image the off-camera talk between those two? Owch! Bush's ears wouldn't be just burning, they'd explode! Cheney's and Rummy's too.

or accusations against him and makes Maher look like a fool.

Friday, October 6 at 11 pm, Real Time with Bill Maher goes to Washington D.C for a special "Bill on the Hill" edition.
Our Real Time guests will include actor/comedian Robin Williams, terrorism expert Richard Clarke, Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL), and talk-show host Chris Matthews — with one-on-one interviews with Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) and Sen. Lincoln Chafee (R-RI). Plus, a few "October surprises!"

Robin Williams and John Kerry go way back. (Yes, seriously.)

For a social loner he sure has a lot of cool aquaintances and friends? I would also assume that Robin Williams would not enjoy being with someone with no sense of humor.

That does seem like an interesting line up. It would be more fun to see him with Robin Williams.

What a buddy movie that would make.
:rofl:

Biden went on the panel.

His funny personality would come out more on the panel, too. The satellite creates more distance.

but an in-studio interview would be fine. (I don't like Bill Maher that much. I think he has an ego the size of a truck. The purpose of the panel on his show is to fan Maher's ego. I don't actually want the Senator there and laughing at some dumb prop humor of the type that Maher favors. I just don't.)

Max Cleland was just fantastic on the panel. And, really, it's so annoying when stupid people are on the panel and don't know anything.

:)

:)

And I can't wait!

I don't think Bill will be too hard on Kerry.
I have seem Bill interview people that he did not agree with and he treated them with respect. I'm betting he will ask Kerry what the country would have looked like if he was Pres. But - Bill did slam Kerry and Gore on his last live show. He did it in his "New Rules" Segment. He showed a pic of the 2 of them and he said (paraphrasing here) New rule - candidates have to show their balls before the election, and not wait until after.

It will be interesting and a fantastic opportunity for Kerry to connect with that crowd.

I watch RealTime every weekend, but I agree with you TayTay - Bill Maher's ego is huge.

It's a DC crowd, but I bet there are a lot of college kids. (Who else is up then or is this going to be taped. Otherwise, it's a live audience at 11:00 pm EST.)

dupe.

Here's my apology:

And here's hoping he has Maher eating out of his hand. He actually had a show a few weeks ago that I could sit all the way through. Not expecting a repeat, though. Maher's too fond of his own smartass persona.

Kick ass, Senator!!!

:loveya: :loveya:

He looked great!

:loveya:

Happy Birthday Teresa!

Kerry: They can't protect us from one Congressman!

LOL!

about going to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave?

He laughed, but I was thinking - uh oh, here comes the secret service...

cliche! It was hilarious!

Too bad Kerry's so dull and doesn't connect with people.

Did you notice quite a few screams from the audience? After having the Faneuil speeches, I was interested in hearing how a non-Boston crowd would respond. The screams were still there.

in the GD thread i saw. he must have done really well.

Kerry was relaxed and funny. And Maher gave him a lot of respect.

I'm not an HBO subscriber, so I couldn't see this. I was hoping that there would be somthing on the Bill Maher website, but couldn't find any way to download or order a transcript or to view a video.
Certainly there should be a way at least to access a transcript? Does anyone know?

http://www.hbo.com/billmaher/downloads/

I don't get HBO either so after reading this thread and the GD thread, I just had to go find it!

I wonder how long it takes for them to post the new podcast after the show airs?

over at the Real Time forum http://boards.hbo.com/thread.jspa?threadID=700004114&tstart=0&mod=1160206819196
seems to be that Kerry had a facelift.

Sigh.

Such an important issue to discuss, and oh my god, IT'S THE LIGHTING.

This has to be at least the third time since the election. It's a good thing that he has never been completely out of the public eye for long enough for it to be possible. It's the lighting and that he gained weight.

I was thrown when I watched the Distance Learning show. Seeing the relaxed, heavier Kerry right after seeing the First debate footage was amazing - he really was too thin then. At the time, I thought he looked fine.

The more likely scenario is he has gotten some rest and he was with Teresa. We just saw pictures of him earlier this week, face lifts take time to heal. Screw these people. They need something to criticize.

One noted he looked more relaxed.

I don't think there has been a whole week ever with us not having one Kerry photo or sighting. I have no idea how long a facelift takes to heal. We saw photos of him in FL, Iowa, Ohio and NH since the Senate went out of session about a week ago.

He looked great, he was laid back, and even cracked a few jokes.

Interesting thing he said: he thought about how he "took the high road" in '04, and if he should have gone the "low road". If it was with the truth, I'm with him. Only thing that means to us: when people on GD or dKos whine about how Kerry "didn't fight back", it kind of seems like Kerry is now agreeing with them. That he made a bad decision in August '04, and should have hit back immediately. He thought the truth would come out, but the drama of the SBVT lies ended up taking on a life of its own.

So I wonder if that means we need to change our tactics. That yes Kerry made a mistake in '04, but he has learned that lesson, having gotten burned, and is in a better position than anyone else to avenge for The Truth (WEL's idea).

He got some good points in about Iraq, and the Foley comment was great.

I really like Kerry on these types of programs. He's SOO much better than on the Sunday programs and cable news. JMO.

Kerry's campaign was never as bad as the Kos type people have screaming.

The campaign also was not perfect. There were things at the time which I thought should have been handled differently (but, unlike the Kos people I'm not going to claim to know if things really would have turned out any better if Kerry had done things "my way.")

Kerry has admitted on several ocassions that he would have done some things differently. There's no disgrace in that. He went through an experience very few people have in running for President. There is no doubt that anyone running is going to make some mistakes along the way as it is impossible to know during the heat of a campaign exactly how everything will work out and how the other party will respond.

Having run in 2004 gives him valuable experience which should be helpful should he run in 2008.

When people in GD say Kerry didn't fight back, I would not agree with them as that is not the case. Kerry did fight back (but sometimes could have done a better job of it). What is different now is that Kerry knows how to do a better job of fighting back against the Republican smears.

in a one-minute answer. Maher would have to put Boehlert on his program for at least 15 minutes to let him give a rundown.

I don't like that Kerry didn't attack what the media did and did not do. It's the truth, even if it does sound like excuse-making to anyone less aware of the facts. And excuse-making just isn't his style - he accepts responsibility for EVERYTHING, as a real leader does - I just don't like that it results in the media getting off the hook.

He does have a tendency to go with the conventional wisdom on stupid stuff that just doesn't matter. He wanted to get to important issues and there's no point in wasting interview time rehashing the election. He's doing exactly what people always say they want Dems to do, controlling the press and framing the issues. Besides, swiftboating is now campaign speak, so we may as well go with that.

that's not necessarily a deal-breaker. Because that's saying that they think he was a good, qualified candidate. And that if he did "fight back" he could be a winner. All he'd need to do is show them that he is now determined and able to fight back--and he could show that in the primaries.

Especially as Mrs Clinton will have to show she can fight back.

dupe

The fact is that he did fight back - we have the list. We also know from the exit polls that it was not the difference. So, what is Kerry doing? My guess is that the real issue is not what happened, but what people think happened. He needs to convince people that it would not be a problem in 2008.

1. Noboby else, including Clinton has dealt with this better:
One possibility is to even use Clinton. In an article ( http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x2867925 ) he says that the media of 2004 was not the media of the past. Our point should be that looking, even at 2000, lies of the magnitude of SBVT would have been condemned by the media. 2004, was a new world. How did EX-PRESIDENT Clinton do countering the lies/smears at the beginning of the Bush Presidency? (Clinton's pardons, stealing stuff from the WH, etc). Not all that well and this was pre-911 which greatly enhanced Bush's power.

What Kerry did do was MORE than equivilent to what Clinton did in 1992. Clinton deflected the accusations - trashing Gennifer Flowers, questioning motives of accusers. This was necessary as it was the only way to fight it. For Kerry, a difference was the accusations were false and they challanged his honor and integrity. A person is Kerry's position doesn't have the record of integrity that he has by chance. It was essential to him to dissprove them. Also, consider the defections worked because the media wanted them to work and with a wink didn't ask for proof.

Conclusion: No one could have predicted the press in 2004, Kerry didn't, he learned.

2.) What Kerry has said is he needed to put more money behind the truth. There were financial limitations in 2004 that would have made this hard if not impossible in 2004. We could be sitting here saying, that had Kerry simply trusted the common sense of the American people, he would have had enough money in October for the last minute ads to seal the election and was it vanity that made him waste so much money on defending himself. (Kerry's real solution going forward is likely the Patriot Group is the type of organization that can do this and the contributions aren't limited. (from the stuff originally posted on the group))

3) Even when he got the award at the Kennedy Center, Kerry had clearly thought a lot about how you get around the right wing echo chamber and at that time admitted he didn't yet have an answer. Many ways he has tried to engage people in activism this year have been unusual and surprising. From his emails, blogs, to this Iraq thing - he's clearly experimenting in a way the more cookie cutter politians aren't.

I think referencing the list and adding the lesson learned stuff is a good idea.

.

Funny, honest and the audience was quite loud.

My fav was the 'boot in your ass' comment.
Maher saying that in 2004 Kerry was too smart, he read books, was too metropolitan, the voters wanted someone to walk around saying "we'll put a boot in your ass". Then Maher asked what he will do different in 2008, Kerry answered "I'll put a boot in THEIR ass". lol. He was great, and looked great on 2 huge screens.

It was a great show. One of the better ones, not just because of Kerry. But Robin Williams & Ileana-Ros (r)Fla. took Maher out of his game...they took over. Richard Clarke, Tweety & Chafee were also on. Worth watching.

it's up now on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wIF7_P92ORQ

Watching it now. :)

He was great! And audience laughed and applauded in all the right places. Terrific.

I do not have HBO, and this was very nice to see.

:yourock:

I just watched it - he was great and looked great too. The audiance seemed connected.