Move over Mitt and Barack, because there's a far more rambunctious, exciting debate duo in town: Jon Stewart and Bill O'Reilly.
The men met at George Washington University in DC last night for “O'Reilly v Stewart 2012: the Rumble in the Air-Conditioned Auditorium,” an event moderated by CNN's ED Hill and that featured the men facing-off on almost every subject under the sun, including the role of government, the attacks on U.S. embassies in Libya and Cairo and the ethics of government subsidies. Wondered Stewart, “Why is it if you take advantage of a tax break as a corporation you're a smart businessman, but if you take advantage of a tax break as a person you're a moocher?”
The LA Times offers some more details:
The Daily Show host centered his remarks around the idea that many on the right live in an “alternate reality,” of which O'Reilly is allegedly the mayor. It's a place, Stewart declared, where “problems are amplified, solutions simplified.” The name Stewart gave O'Reilly's domicile was somewhat more spicy, but you get the drift.
O'Reilly, host of the Fox News show The O'Reilly Factor, pulled no punches either, accusing Stewart of defending an addled, entitlement-laden society, the “poster child” of which is Sandra Fluke. Fluke, the Georgetown law student who came under attack from Rush Limbaugh after she spoke out on behalf of contraception coverage, is the embodiment of a country that is “lazy,” “mooching” and overly dependent on the federal government, he said.
Asked at the end what they had learned, Stewart, using his affectionate honorific for O'Reilly's employer, Fox News, told Hill, “have learned that bullsh*t mountain is tall, bullsh*t mountain is wide, and it's deep.” O'Reilly answer? “That I know I'm right.”
Watch the video, via The Guardian, AFTER THE JUMP.
