Perhaps Freshman Kentucky Senator Rand Paul should have paid attention to Senator Al Frankin, who Paul says told him not to go on The Late Show With David Letterman - or for that matter, Paul's own wife. Going on David Letterman's show resulted in a Rand Paul with a reduced image. Regardless of what die-hard Tea Party myopics want to believe, and how much they flood message boards and chat rooms with fantasies about Paul's performance tonight, the total truth is, it was a massive disaster.
As you can see in the video, everything was wrong. It started from the moment Paul came out to the stage at the Ed Sullivan Theater in New York, where Letterman's show is taped. Rather than wave to the crowd and walk out in a relaxed fashion, Senator Paul literally waddled out like a Penguin. He even looked the part in a blue blazer, blue jeans, and white shirt with a red tie: he looked stiff and nervous.
Then, once Senator Paul sat down he made the major mistake of trying to be funny. So, his first three quips that were jokes you'd have to be a Washington insider or politico to get, went over without a laugh. In fact, it wasn't until Paul said that Senator Frankin told him not to come on the show that he actually got a laugh.
It was horrible.
It went further down hill when, in an exchange that's worth listening to over and over again, Letterman made Paul look like the Senator was just out of touch with the working person. When Paul tried to say that America was throwing too much money at education, Letterman countered that we were spending enough on education. When Paul tried to argue for reducing the public sector, Letterman got him to basically say he was trying to take jobs and spending away from the middle class basic worker.
The entire exchange made for the most cringe-inducing segment since the one where Actor Joaquin Phoenix came on Letterman's show and acted like he was on acid. The problem was Senator Paul wasn't on acid or anything. Maybe he should have been; it would have given him some kind of excuse for what happened.
David Letterman made Senator Paul look like a common city councilman from a small Kentucky town, instead of a major political player in America. Paul had better go back and re-think his platform and his message to America, because after tonight it's obvious he's out of touch with what's happening. People don't want to hear rhetoric about the size of government, they just want jobs. Period.
I didn't think Senator Paul came out of this looking that bad. I mean, he had the guts to walk into Dave's house and suffer the consequences. When Dave twice turned away from the senator, and towards the camera/audience, and declared that what Paul was saying 'just doesn't sound right' (or whatever he said) - I was actually cringing for Dave. To me it looked like, even though Dave had 'homecourt' advantage, he had to resort to a rude tactic like that get his point across. What choice did Paul have but to sit there passively while Dave totally dissed him? I agree it was an awkward interview, but on this one, I attribute most of that awkwardness to Dave.
ReplyDeleteNah. Where Senator Paul and Rand Paul supporters are wrong is that he's got to convince Mr. And Miss John Q Public and that's represented by David Letterman. Just the crowd reaction will tell you. Rand wasn't a good sales person. He didn't come off as someone you want to be your leader. Sorry. He blew it.
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