And the hits just keep on coming.
Rather than put the video up myself, I'm just going to refer you to Cesca, who did more than just post a clip of The Daily Show's epic takedown of (stop me if you've heard this one before) the laughably stupid "birther" controversy last night; he's also inviting intelligent folks everywhere to write to Lou Dobbs -- the target of Jon Stewart's on-air assault and a guy who claims to still not be convinced about the whole Obama birth certificate thing -- to express their collective outrage.
You have to see the clip to believe it: Stewart, through nothing more than a juxtaposition of irrationally contradictory soundbites from CNN, manages to sum up the jaw-dropping insanity that goes hand-in-hand with any perpetuation of the utterly debunked myth that Barack Obama isn't a U.S. citizen.
What's worth elaborating on when it comes to Lou Dobbs's alliance with the birther movement, though, is this: There's just no way Dobbs really believes the horseshit he's spouting in this case. He may be a demagogic buffoon; he may even enjoy playing the fascist paranoiac afraid of Mexicans infiltrating his precious bodily fluids; but he's by no means a blithering idiot. There's simply no way Dobbs is dumb enough to believe that Barack Obama isn't a U.S. citizen -- or even that the jury is still out on the issue. Like a lot of the nonsense Lou Dobbs spews, this is simply another case of a popular talking head knowing his audience and playing it like a badly tuned fiddle. Like O'Reilly, Beck -- hell, even Olbermann -- and their ilk, Dobbs's chief interest isn't being right or even smart; it's keeping viewers coming back every night. The bigger his audience, the more money he makes.
It's burlesque -- and that's pretty much all it is.
Dobbs is basically bitching to hear himself bitch -- and the more people willing to listen, the better. What he's saying barely matters, as long as targets of his populist bluster eat it up and beg for more.
Bob Cesca's Awesome Blog! Go!: Lou Dobbs and Birther Nonsense/7.23.09
(Update: I always hate when I miss the opportunity to throw out a really good line, especially if it's a relatively obvious one. To wit, the Huffington Post implies that Dobbs thinks of Barack Obama as the ultimate undocumented worker. Perfect.)
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