Stephen Colbert!

Jesus... I just watched Stephen Colbert from the White House Correspondents dinner on CSPAN... and all I can say is wow... just wow. If you don't watch the Colbert Report... he basically pretends to be this super right-wing pundit (in the vein of O'Reilly) but in reality you can tell how disingenious he is being. Personally, I like John Stewarts style better... but I have found myself liking the Colbert Report more than when it was first on air (I watch the clips from the Comedy Central website).

In any case, he was chosen as the closing speech for this dinner and the President was sitting literally less than 5 feet away from Stephen. Stephen in the style of his show, the Colbert Report, praised the President and members of his cabinet... but in a very swarmy way. In fact, it was the most critical and out-right scathing attack I have ever seen the President endure in person. Colbert was definitely funny (although the nervous or non-existent laughter from the audience at half his jokes made it harder to know whether to laugh or not)... but what I found amazing about it was how he just carried forward with no hesitation. He ragged on the President, his cabinet members, the press, everyone. It was awesome.

I would post the video up, but I can't find it yet on the net. So I'll check tomorrow and see if it's somewhere. It does remind me of a funny skit that Clinton did though... and the skit reminds me of why Clinton was such a damn likable guy. I'll hopefully find the CSPAN coverage of the Colbert speech tomorrow and post it up.

After this though, I have a LOT of respect for Stephen Colbert... as he told the President (in a very mocking manner) that he and his people have fucked up so many things... and did it to his face. Despite the cold audience (of which many were the very folks he was making fun of)... he never hesitated or backed down.

EDIT:
Found the videos. It's broken up into 3 parts...

- Part 1
- Part 2
- Part 3

Enjoy.