Was John Stewarts "Rally to Restore Sanity" an abysmal failure?

Yeah, it was pretty much a failure, as well as a pathetic attempt to help the democrats prop up their really bad poll numbers. What I think is really funny though, is the mistaken idea that Hitler was a member of the political right, when the reality is that he was a leftist... a National Socialist. Fascism and socialism are both products of the leftists, as is progressive, Nazi, Statist, Liberal, and any of the other euphemisms that the lefties love to use, which includes Communism. It always amazes me when people make such a basic mistake in the area of politics and history... it's like they don't even know what it is that they themselves are actually supporting, and are in denial. It is a lot more accurate to portray 0bama as Hitler than it is to portray anyone on the right that way. Here are a couple of articles I just received on the whole Stewart debacle... http://www.aim.org/aim-column/stewart-fails-to-deliver-sanity/ http://blog.heritage.org/2010/11/01/morning-bell-solutions-for-sanity/?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=Morning%2BBell

80% of the crowd were Democratic voters opposed to the vast majority that attended Beck's restoring honor rally that will vote Republican. Let's just use an educated guess here shall we, can we safely say that no one who attended Beck religious rally will be voting Democratic this year. As to the morons at the rally to restore sanity opposed to the morons that attended Beck's restoring honor I will take Stewart's' morons over Beck's morons any day.

From what I get the debacle was in the crowd, not on the stage. It's sad that so many in the crowd were so busy making it about themselves that they missed out on what the event was all about in the first place.

Really, only 80% of the crowd votes Democrat? As opposed to what, 99.9999% of the Beck rally crowd that votes Republican? Politics weren't even mentioned other than in the clips from both liberal and conservative news outlets. I'm sure there were some people there with offensive signs but I don't think it was that many, at least not from what I could see during the TV broadcast. There were some humorous and satirical signs some may have taken to be "anti" -Palin, Bush, tea party or whatever but I honestly didn't see anything offensive. Like I said, I'm not saying there were NONE there. I'd say it was far from "an abysmal failure". The crowd looked considerably bigger than Beck's crowd, for one thing. It was positive and uplifting and not divisive and hate and fear-mongering. Jon's speech at the end was one of the best I've ever heard. Annie

Taskr, you have told me many times that you will get wackos in every group, especially a political rally. At both Glenn Beck's rally, and Stewart's rally there were wackos, but I don't think that it made either them a failure. I have no problem with you highlighting these idiots, because if we don't highlight them then we can't single them out, and oppose their hate.

Morons show up all over the place. I can't judge the entire crowd by a few people thinking that it's racist and stupid to draw a Hitler mustache on Obama but actually patriotic to draw one on Bush. Crap like that is just crap like that. But I'm wondering... Will organizations out there "study" the crowd and complete reports about these attendees being radical? Will MSM take a few signs and attribute those leanings to the entire rally? Will morons from this rally be treated like morons at all, or will they be completely and utterly ignored? That might as well be a rhetorical question, since I already know the answer. I'm torn on Jon Stewart in general. I see a guy who really, really wants to matter in America as a political guy (in some form or fashion) but always has that perfect "I'm a comedian!" out. At least guys like Bill Maher let go of one to pick up the other (not that I'm comparing the two in terms of view; Maher is a complete lunatic). So while his message may have been a little more middle-of-the-road than he is as a person, I think you get the type of audience you warrant. Your audience, without any spin or any out-of-context reporting or number tweaking, tells the tale of exactly who you are (the few morons not included, as they'll always show up for their free lunch). In my opinion, Stewart took himself a little too seriously in thinking he could appeal to moderates by putting on a moderate front. So the primary audience was liberal and will always be for any type of event he tries to hold. It's just who he is. I can't mention anything about Colbert, because he's more like an Andy Kaufman type from what I can tell.

Well, it could have been better. Honestly, I don't like Fox either, so the anti-Fox signs didn't matter to me. I don't like the Tea Party, so that wasn't a big deal either. I am not Christian, so again, don't care about the anti-Christian signs, and as for "legalizing pot", well, Prop 19 got shot down in California yesterday, so it's quite clear that that bill "went up in smoke" (pardon the pun), and the majority of people don't want pot legalized. Stewart should have been more clear on what he wanted at this rally because he should have known that he would get people like that out there.

thank you for the video. the interviews reminded me of interviews at the polls in 2008! dumases that have no clue. "what did o'reilly say that you didnt like?" "um er /i dont know"

It was such a shame that it seems as if most the people attending the rally were truly insane. Perhaps they should all be herded into an insane asylum for some serious help before they drive the sane people nuts! I think it is pretty obvious that the people who defend and applaud everything that Obama and his minions do to destroy our country need some psychiatric help to see what is really happening to the USA.

it sounded like a good idea.

I think the organizers had more integrity than many of those who attended. But if the rally was not meant to be anything more than a big party, it mostly succeeded. Let's face it, if Arianna Huffington is going to provide free transportation and you're going to get to see Stewart, Colbert, Ozzy, etc.. why not go for fun and music and a big party on the mall? There were those who seemed to think it was an anti-Republican rally and I found the poster with the photo of Eric Cantor, who is Jewish, with a Hitler mustache drawn on his face to be really offensive. It shows the lack of real understanding of politics and the issues on the part of many of those who attended. Again, some came for the party. Jon Stewart is very serious about his politics and he's definitely a hard-left liberal. But Stewart doesn't give everyone on the left a pass simply because they are on the left. He calls out the morons on both sides and pokes fun at those who behave in ridiculous ways regardless of their affiliations. I disagree with him politically, but I think he is a man of integrity and reason. If the Democrats felt this was going to boost their chances of getting young voters out, I am not sure they will find that is the case. Basically, if they were going to vote before the rally, they still will. I am not sure that the rally is going to get the partiers out to vote, they probably aren't even registered.

i'll just cherry pick if you don't mind. well you probably do but i don't. what is wrong with campaigning to legalise pot?