Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Friday, September 26, 2008
Vote for the Guy with One House
(CNN) -- Republican presidential candidate John McCain is just holding on like a boxer before he gets knocked out, comedian Chris Rock says.
Comedian Chris Rock told Larry King he's proud of Barack Obama's character.
Rock, an avid supporter of Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama, spoke with CNN's Larry King on Thursday. He said Obama is more grounded with your average American -- not somebody like McCain with "12 houses."
"The other guy [McCain] can lose five houses," Rock said.
"I'll go with the guy with one house. The guy with one house is scared about losing his house." 
Watch Chris Rock describe a beaten up McCain »
King began the interview by asking Rock about Thursday's economic bailout talks when Obama and McCain went to the White House for discussions with the nation's top leaders.
KING: Obama and McCain at opposite ends of the table. What do you make of it?
ROCK: What do I make of it? If this was a boxing match, McCain would be holding.
KING: Holding on?
ROCK: Yes. It's like he got hit really hard in the stomach like, 'OK. I can't let him go. He's going to knock me out.' So that's what appears to be going on right now. Just a hold.
KING: Has the financial crisis affected you?
ROCK: Larry, I drove a cab over here tonight. When it's over, I'm going to try to pick up some more fares. I'm losing everything, Larry.
KING: Really downtrodden?
ROCK: Yes, it's real bad.
KING: Have HBO paid you already?
ROCK: They have paid me, but the money is worthless now. Haven't you heard? Your money's worth nothing.
KING: You must be ... proud that at this stage in our history a black man is running for president on a major ticket.
ROCK: Um, you know what? I'm proud Barack Obama's running for president. You know? If it was Flavor Flav, would I be proud? No. I don't support Barack Obama because he's black.
KING: I said just as a proud feeling. That's normal.
ROCK: There's a proud feeling because of the character of the man. You know, I was -- I supported John Kerry and, you know -- and what's my man? Al Gore.
KING: Al Gore.
ROCK: But this guy seems to be a little bit more. He seems to have watched other peoples' mistakes and, you know, seems to have a little bit more going on.
KING: From a comedic stand point, who is funnier, McCain or Obama? Seriously. Is Obama not -- it's hard to be funny about Obama?
ROCK: No, no. It's weird. People ask me that all the time. ... McCain jokes are just easy jokes, like I don't want a president with a bucket list. That's like a McCain joke. Those jokes are easy. It's like you basically, you know, you know, take the dust off your Reagan jokes and tell them again. You know?
But Obama, oh, this is a whole new set of jokes. I got to find a whole new move to the basket here. So I kind of hope he wins.
KING: Didn't you introduce Obama at a rally?
ROCK: I introduced Obama at the Apollo Theater not too long ago. I think Obama would be great. I mean, just look the big thing right now is the economy. And people are going broke. And here: The choice isn't Republican or Democrat. The choice is you got a guy that's worth $150 million with 12 houses against a guy who's worth a million dollars with one house.
KING: Well --
ROCK: The guy with one house really cares about losing a house, because he is homeless. The other guy can lose five houses and still got a bunch of houses. Does this make any sense? Am I the only one that sees this?
KING: It's unique way of ...
ROCK: I'm just saying, John McCain could lose half his houses.
KING: You got a point.
ROCK: And sleep well.
KING: You and Bill Clinton were on Letterman on Tuesday. You had some problems with the tone of his endorsement of Barack Obama. ... Do you think Bill is hesitant about Barack Obama?
ROCK: You know what? You know, he did a great speech in Denver. And Hillary's been on the campaign trail. Just at that moment, if you watched what happened on David Letterman, it appeared he was holding back. And when you tell a joke and everybody laughs, it is not because they disagree with what you're saying. So --
KING: They get it?
ROCK: Yes, they get it. The whole audience was in on it. But, you know, hey, the guy's in a weird position there. His wife ran for the thing and she didn't win.
KING: The next night, on "The Daily Show," Jon Stewart asked Clinton about the Letterman appearance and Clinton suggested that Obama supporters who questioned commitment are missing the point.
ROCK: It was great. It was great. And you're right, [Obama] does need to get some of the votes that went to Hillary and all that. I don't understand any Democrat that voted for Hillary that doesn't support Obama. Because their views are pretty similar. You know what I mean? ...
I understand people supporting Mr. McCain. But a Democrat that's going to just be mad is -- there's something kind of really messed up about that.
KING: Have you always done political humor?
ROCK: You know --
KING: When you started, did you do politics?
ROCK: I'm interested in the world. Jon Stewart does political humor. Bill Maher does political humor. I talk about stuff the way guys would talk about it at the barber shop. I don't belong on any panel on this show. You know what I mean? I don't deserve to be near Roland Martin and Anderson Cooper and all these guys. I try to talk about politics in a way a guy that works at UPS would understand.
KING: You did a lot of Brooklyn stuff.
ROCK: It is that simple.
Thursday, September 4, 2008
Republican VP: 5 Things You Didn’t Know: Sarah Palin
Sarah Palin is a first-term Republican governor from Alaska. She is that state’s first-ever female governor and its youngest, sworn in at age 42 in 2006. Prior to becoming governor, she served two terms on the Wasilla, Alaska, city council and two terms as the town’s mayor.
After losing the 2002 race for lieutenant governor, Sarah Palin was appointed to the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, resigning the position 11 months later.
Married with five children, Sarah Palin was 3 years old when John McCain became a POW in Vietnam, yet if elected to the vice presidency, she would be roughly the same age as Al Gore when he took that office.
To further acquaint you with the Republican vice presidential nominee, here are five things you didn’t know about Sarah Palin.
1- Sarah Palin tried to sell a jet on eBay
Shortly after assuming the office of governor, Sarah Palin tried to keep a campaign promise, which was to sell the Westwind II jet that had been bought by the hugely unpopular incumbent, Frank Murkowski.
In 2005, Murkowski requested almost $3 million from the Alaska legislature to buy the jet for use by him, his administration and future administrations. His request was denied, so Murkowski asked the federal government, who also denied him. Unwilling to take no for an answer, Murkowski created a special account and bought it anyway. Voters weren’t impressed with his tenacity.
A year later, Sarah Palin, as governor, listed the jet for sale on eBay, doing so three times, each time bidders failed to meet the reserve. Finally, in August 2007, she succeeded in selling it through a broker for $2.1 million -- at a loss of around half a million dollars.
2- Sarah Palin posed in Vogue
Known for her furs and otherwise stylish outfits (among politicians at least), Sarah Palin is no stranger to chic fashion, which explains why she appeared in a spread for Vogue magazine in February 2008.
In this vein, she’s also a former beauty queen: In 1984, she was crowned Miss Wasilla and she was runner-up in the subsequent Miss Alaska pageant later that year. She didn’t go home empty-handed, however, having been named Miss Congeniality. One curious thing you didn’t know about Sarah Palin is that she lost to a woman named Marilyne Blackburn -- the state’s first black Miss Alaska.
3- Sarah Palin scored the championship point in a high school basketball game
John McCain’s young and attractive running mate has earned a few monikers in her time, including Mrs. Mayor, Madame Governor, Miss Congeniality, GILF, and two notably more feisty names: cougar and, in high school she was known as “Sarah Barracuda.”
This last one she earned as captain of Wasilla High’s girls basketball team, allegedly due to her fiercely competitive spirit. That level of gamesmanship served her and her team well: In the state championship game, Sarah Palin not only scored the winning basket, but she did it with a stress fracture in her ankle.
4- Sarah Palin eloped with her high school sweetheart
Soon after Sarah Heath met Todd Palin at a high school basketball game, the two became sweethearts, but another six years would pass before they decided to tie the knot in 1988. Had it been a better fishing year for the two of them (they operated a small commercial fishery), they might have had enough money to pay for a “real” wedding; instead, they eloped, enlisting some witnesses from a nearby nursing home and dropping $35 at a local courthouse.
Known in Alaska as the “first dude,” the blue-collar Todd Palin is a four-time Iron Dog 2,000-mile snowmobile race champion and, according to a piece in the Anchorage Daily News, he is very much a house-husband.
5- Sarah Palin inhaled
Alaskans are permitted by law to possess a single ounce of marijuana, thanks first to a 2003 ruling by the Alaska Court of Appeals that made it legal to possess no more than four ounces, and later, by a Supreme Court ruling that amended the amount to one. The reason it even reached the Supreme Court was because, in 2006, then-governor Murkowski rejected the Court of Appeals ruling.
Consequently, during the 2006 race for governor, marijuana became an issue among the candidates, albeit a minor issue. At this time, Sarah Palin seemingly decided to launch a preemptive strike against any of her old stoner friends who might have been planning to climb out of the woodwork; she announced that not only had she tried weed, but that she couldn’t “claim a Bill Clinton” and say she never inhaled.
Don’t load that celebratory bowl just yet. One last thing you didn’t know about Sarah Palin is that although she did inhale, she opposes legalization.
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
McCain's Potential Vice Presidential Candidates
By Jill Konieczko
Sen. John McCain disclosed that he is in the "embryonic stages" of selecting a running mate, whom he hopes to introduce at the Republican National Convention. While he refused to disclose any names, McCain told reporters that the list is about 20 deep. Here are names we've identified in media reports (we'll update the list as we hear of more):
Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour
North Carolina Sen. Richard Burr
Florida Gov. Charlie Crist
Former Arkansas Gov. and former presidential candidate Mike Huckabee
Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr.
Texas Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison
Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty
Former Ohio Rep. and former Director of the Office of Management and Budget Rob Portman
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice
Former Massachusetts Gov. and former presidential candidate Mitt Romney
Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan
South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford
FedEx CEO Frederick Smith
GOPAC Chair Michael Steele