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This interview with Dean Obeidallah appeared on The David Pakman Show on January 23, 2012.
David Pakman: Dean Obeidallah’s joining us. He is a former lawyer turned political comedian. He writes frequently for www.CNN.com, which attracts him a ton of hate mail. He’s on Twitter @Deanofcomedy, and his website is www.DeanOfComedy.com. I actually… we were both on The Young Turks on Current, that’s how we originally connected, are you going to become a regular on there, Dean, or what’s the story?
Dean Obeidallah: If it was up to me, I’d have my own show, but it’s not, so we’ll see what happens. I like Cenk a great deal, and I think I’m going back on Wednesday, but, you know, it’s once every few weeks.
But I love the show, and I love the fact that he has the courage to mock both political parties, talk about corruption that’s, you know, part of our system that’s endemic now on both sides, and that’s very hard to do in the mainstream media, frankly. They want you to pick one side or the other.
David: Well, it’s interesting, because there’s kind of a connection between corruption in politics and, you know, our mutual friend, comedian Jeff Kreisler, also seems to believe that corruption should kind of be the key to a comedian’s success. I don’t… do you agree with that?
Obeidallah: Corruption? I’m not sure what he means by that. I mean…
David: Well, you know, lying, cheating is the way to get ahead, you know?
Obeidallah: That’s right. I think in Jeff’s case it is. I go on talent, but for Jeff, I think he must use everything he has, and that’s including lying, cheating, whatever it might take, deception.
No, Jeff’s a very funny, talented guy. I know he says that tongue-in-cheek, but in politics, I mean, look in South Carolina, the history there of fake… you know, push-polling, lies, and emails sent to people, the Mitt Romney card sent four years ago saying Mitt wishes you like a Mormon Christmas, and that he endorses polygamy. So there is a place, sadly, still for lies in the election. It goes on in politics today. It’s not gone.
David: Yeah, well, we were talking earlier on the show about Newt Gingrich has basically bamboozled a group of Evangelical voters who claim that family and morals are their most important considerations when voting for someone into voting for him for the exact same thing he was critical for Bill Clinton was doing when he was going after him in the ’90s. How are these people falling for this? The guy’s a genius, in a way.
Obeidallah: I think, to be honest, I think part of it is their rejection of Mitt Romney. They can forgive Newt Gingrich for having an affair with two women and being married three times; they cannot forgive Mitt Romney for being a Mormon. That’s what I think the problem is with Evangelicals, I find a lot of them, their leadership, I’ve dealt with them, even in this project we’re working on, “The Muslims are Coming!”, this documentary, we’ve dealt with them, they are very closed-minded, the leadership, not the rank and file, but it trickles down to them.
I do love the fact that Newt and Mitt Romney are fighting. Nothing better than seeing the 1% fighting the 1%. In fact, I think it’s Newt’s 1% versus the .01% with Mitt Romney.
You know, the battle is ongoing today. It’s even stepped more; so Mitt Romney went after Newt on the ethics violation when he was in Congress as Speaker, he was fined $300,000, I think it’s going to get uglier and uglier. In tonight’s debate in Florida, I think you’re going to see Mitt Romney on the much more aggressive, and attacking Newt not on the issues about his personal life, but on being congressman, on Freddie Mac, how much money he got from the consulting, was he a lobbyist or not? I think it’s getting really ugly, this race.
So I don’t think Newt… I think Newt winning in South Carolina is not… I don’t think anyone thinks or believes he wins the nomination. I think in Florida, the polls show Mitt still holding on. We’ll see in a week from now if he can hang on and win that election there.
David: Yeah, I mean, it’s funny, because with the debates, at first, my thought was people in the media are interested in the debates, but the average person doesn’t really care about these constant Republican debates.
And then I actually kind of reversed my thought, because I saw some of the polling, which said in South Carolina, people both watched the debates, and they were actually influenced as far as who to vote for by what they saw in those debates. By the way, with South Carolina, it led them to vote for Newt Gingrich, because he had I guess his show-stopping zing of John King about his various, you know, open marriage and the whole thing.
Are you sick of the debates? Do you even… or, do you watch them, but do you watch them for a different reason than maybe the average voter does? I don’t even know how other media people are seeing these debates.
Obeidallah: I love the debates. They’re like American Presidential Idol. I mean, I love the fact that they attack each other, I love that I can Tweet… I try to Tweet as much as I can during the debates and mock them as I’m watching, or even if there’s good points.
I mean, I think when people look back at this campaign, if Newt were to win, that question by John King was a turning point. That question sealed the South Carolina victory in my mind for Newt. I immediately Tweeted, I said, “John King just gave him South Carolina.” It let him rally against the establishment, the media elite, and not talk about the issues anymore.
David: A lot of people said that. A lot of people did say that, but you know, the thing is, imagine if they didn’t have the crowd there, right? Because if John King asked that question and there’s not a crowd, and it’s an interview setting, and Mitt Romney [sic] responds and he says, “You’re starting an interview with that question?” blah, blah, blah, and then John King says to him, “Well, Mr. Speaker, you made this issue a huge deal when it was Bill Clinton in 1994. Isn’t that hypocritical?” That’s totally different. It was the crowd not the question that gave it to Gingrich.
Obeidallah: That was like Thunderdome. I don’t know if you remember the movie “Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome”, I mean, they’re really one step from putting these guys in a cage and chanting, “Four go in, one come out.” Those, in effect, they booed, jeered Juan Williams earlier in the week when he had the audacity to raise issue about race and playing on the “Food Stamp President” idea.
I’ve never seen the Republican Party move further and further to the right like they are now. And I think, honestly, if I was a Republican moderate or liberal, I would say endorse Newt Gingrich, get him to win the nomination, and he will lose badly in the general, just like Barry Goldwater in 1964, and that righted the party. The next nominee, in 1968, was Richard Nixon, who was a much more centrist candidate, and it made the Republican Party more inclusive.
I think if they nominate Romney and they lose, that emboldens the conservatives four years from now saying look, we didn’t nominate a strict ultra-conservative, although Newt I don’t think arguably truly is, but that’s the perception. So it hurts the moderates and destroys the moderates and liberals in the party. There’s already almost no moderate and liberal voice in the Republican Party, so they’re left with nothing.
If I was them, I’d say take Newt, let him get destroyed in the general, and then we can move the party back to the center and be more inclusive. I think it’s better for America.
David: Yeah, I mean, neither… the reality is, neither Gingrich nor Romney are what they’re claiming to be. I mean, they’re both saying they’re not Wall Street guys, they’re both saying they’re not Washington insiders, none of it’s true.
From a comedy standpoint, though, which one of the guys will be funnier? Which guy will lend himself to more material, do you think?
Obeidallah: I think Newt, because Newt just says crazy things and doesn’t think it through. I think Mitt is one of the most guarded people I’ve ever seen. That’s probably part of the problem, there’s no visceral reaction.
To me, Mitt really is almost a John Kerry character. I mean, he happens to be from Massachusetts, but more for the other reason that you don’t get this visceral sense from him. You don’t feel him in your heart when he speaks.
Newt gives you a visceral reaction; for good or for bad, this guy pisses me off to no end. And he says stuff about, you know, blacks and janitors, and also I’m part Palestinian, you know, the idea that I’m “invented”, my father was apparently an inventor and not a cook.
I mean, the idea of Newt Gingrich going out and, today Mitt Romney used the term, if you nominate Newt, there might be an October surprise, meaning Newt might lose it in October. Forget October, there could be a January 30th surprise for Newt Gingrich. This man has no qualms saying things, no different than an Ann Coulter or, you know, a Bill O’Reilly, to try to get a rise from people.
But now you have to be more responsible. You’re running for president, you’re running for leader of the free world. And this rhetoric might sell in South Carolina; I think it’s going to be rejected in Florida and many other moderate Republican states.
David: Yeah, I mean, as James Clyburn said, it’s incredible the skill with which Gingrich is able to very casually race-bait. It’s unbelievable.
We’ve been speaking with Dean Obeidallah, former lawyer, now political comedian. He’s at Twitter on @Deanofcomedy, and also www.DeanOfComedy.com. Good to see you, Dean. Talk to you soon.
Obeidallah: Thanks a lot. Thanks for having me on, David.