Anyone see the Bill Maher show last night?

[demosincebirth]

Is it me or did his show stink last nite?

[RufusEarl]

1. I can still smell it!

[NYCGirl]

2. Wasn't the best show I've seen of his. The guests were the problem.

Senor was superficial, as was Griffin. And although I love Helen Thomas, she's not the best at leading a conversation.

Edited to add: Not a good mix of guests at all. I suspect if Fred Barnes and Russ Feingold had been on the panel instead of on the remote, it would have been a better discussion.

[saracat]

4. But even his monoluge sucked.

And as host, it is his job to lead, not Helen's. It was Bill. He had a really off night. He has done better with worse guests

[NYCGirl]

5. I laughed at the monolog. And was relieved when it was time for the

"New Rules."

[demosincebirth]

7. With the start of Bil's monologue (not good),

I thought it went down hill from there.

[saracat]

3. It sucked, I thought. It was like the energy was gone.

Poor Helen brought up really good points they could have run with and they deflated like a baloon. I sure hope he gets better. But If you couldn't be witty about the Cheney incident, there can't be much hope! Wonder what happened? Maybe he is sick?

[immoderate]

6. No good guests is right.

Griffin was too tangential. Helen doesn't react quickly. Senor was OK, but Bushies are surely at a disadvantage when it comes to humor.

Hope it gets better.

--IMM

[dogday]

8. I thought it sucked, I did not even stay up to

finish it. It reeked and he was off, everything was somehow different.. :wtf:

[dysfunctional press]

9. it was a MAJOR disappointment-

although the cheeny commercial at the very beginning was good.

it was all the more disappointing, because we had a couple of good lefty friends over who hadn't ever seen the show, and we had really been talking it up.

c'mon bill- you can do MUCH better- and it's definitely not for lack of material to work with.

[demosincebirth]

13. What a bummer for you guys.

[TomClash]

10. I was so bored I fell asleep after the monologue

:boring:

[SammyWinstonJack]

11. It stunk! Big Time!

[MADem]

12. I saw it, but had a very long day, and had a hard time staying awake n.t.

[tularetom]

14. Good, I fell asleep during the monologue

Glad to hear I didn't miss nuthin.

[stillcool]

15. It seemed to me to be...

uncomfortable around that table...as if they were engulfed in a cloud of anxiety. Maybe it's getting harder to find humor in the continuing calamity.

[stopbush]

16. Is it just me, or does everyone on that show avoid asking the most

obvious questions?

For instance, when the former Bush spokesman was going on about the missing billions in Iraq and how it's hard
to set up a "first world accounting system" in a "third world country," why not ask the obvious question:

Question: was the loss of those billions of dollars all part of bushco's post-war plan, or was it something
they didn't anticipate even though they knew they were going to be throwing money at a
"third-world accounting sysem"...or did they simply not have a plan at all?

The answer is one of those three scenarios, but no one on the panel had the wits to ask a
question that would have pointed to the CAUSE of the loss of the billions.

Bill is not good when his guests don't play to his prepared talking points. Case in point - his interview
with Russ Feingold. Bill wants Dems to make global warming a causus belli, Feingold rightly says
"after we get a handle on all of the illegal NSA stuff," so Bill wimps out. Of course, what Feingold (or any
Dem, for that matter) COULD have answered was, "Bill, why do you believe that fixing the environment
is strictly a Dem problem? Why are you giving Repugs a free ride when their policies are the ones creating
the problem? Why are you not calling on Repugs to repair the damage their policies have done? Why do you
frame the issue as 'Repugs cause all of these problems and it's up to Dems to solve them'? Why not hold Repugs
to the same standard of decency and responsibility that you do Dems?"

Bill's only good shot last night was when he took Fred Barnes on about Barnes calling bush a "rebel"
in his new book. Bill pointed out that a "real" rebel would take on corporations, but that line of reasoning
petered out pretty quickly as well, even though Bill coulda rammed that home with a vengeance.

Bill's problem is that he is lazy in his research. Like a broken clock, he gets a few zingers in a couple of times
per show, but there is no *depth of knowledge* there to ask tough follow-up questions...or to debunk
the RW likes that get spewed by his RW guests.

BTW - I turned Real Time off right before the New Rules. I had had enough.

[demosincebirth]

20. You are right

Bill Maher's big thing is global warming, and rightiously so, but the shit that this administration is getting away with at this time, and the Iraq war, is a more imprortant issue than global warming at this time. Talking about global warming, and making it an issue, at this time will not win election. We need to be in charge before anything can be done. He should know that.

[Greyhound]

17. I think he's done and is just riding it out until the checks stop. Then

he can go to his island and watch the fireworks from a safe distance. I'm seeing this more often in the last year or so, the wealthy setting up their out of country retreats.

[Sugarcoated]

18. It did not rock

unfortunately. As someone said, a bad mix of guests. Except Russ - he was great, but again, as was said, he needed to be sitting at that table speaking truth to power in his amazingly straightforward way. He'd win any debate, powerful, full of integrity.

[Beelzebud]

19. I think Maher is dreadfully uninformed.

NEW RULE: Less Hollywood parties, and more reading!

At one time he had his finger on the pulse, but I think he's gotten lazy. For him to act as if the NSA spying issue wasn't serious, just shows how uninformed, and out of touch he really is.

[maveric]

21. With Bill, the terrorists have won. He's so scared of another attack...

that he condones wiretapping at any degree. He's still freaked out, big time.
Plus Russ Feingold gave him a severe "chumpslapping", as well as did Helen Thomas IMHO.

Eddie Griffen was too "ghetto", for the other guests. Did you see how Helen Thomas was looking at him while he was going on with his "hip-hop", banter?
Priceless!

[Beelzebud]

22. Rich people don't have to worry about the constitution.

When it gets bad here, they'll just take their money and run.

Maher is starting to really paint himself in that light.

[Blue_In_AK]

23. She liked old Eddie, though...

He may have been "ghetto," but he was telling the truth.