The Colbert Report: Robert Reich on the Democratic Nomination Race
By Nicole Belle Wednesday Mar 05, 2008 4:59pm
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Download | play (h/t Heather)
Stephen Colbert does a wrap up from Tuesday's Semi-super Tuesday primaries and wishes his buddy a Huckabye-bye.
Robert Reich, former Clinton Labor Secretary, appears to give his enthusiastic endorsement of the democratic process and to dismiss Colbert's charge that the Democratic party is destroying itself from within, but just won't give an enthusiastic endorsement of a specific candidate, no matter how many ways Colbert tries to wheedle it out of him.
SC: Are you endorsing Hillary Clinton?
RR: No, I decided not to endorse this round.
SC: So, you’re endorsing Barack Obama?
RR: No, I’m not going to endorse anybody. Because I’ve been a friend of Hillary…
SC: But you’re leaning, you’re leaning towards Barack Obama…
RR: …for so many years, I don’t want to endorse anybody, I think that would be inappropriate.
SC: Okay, let me put it this way: if we were at a restaurant together and the waiter brought around the dessert cart, and the choice was ladyfingers or Black Forest cake, which way do you think you’d lean?
RR: Quite seriously, either Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama would make a great president.
SC: Let me put this a different way. If I were a waiter and I were to offer you two different slices of pizza, and one was half-Hawaiian and you weren’t entirely sure what it was going to taste like. And the other was plain with cheese and had been under a heat lamp for 35 years, I mean, it had seen everything. Which would you go for?
RR: I don’t think I’d be terribly excited about either of those slices.
SC: Which movie would you rent? “Big Momma’s House” or “Medea’s Family Reunion”? Be careful, they are both about strong women who are actually black men.
RR: Um, gosh. I think I’d try both of them out.
Long live Colbert
Brilliant as always!
Reich is usually the smartest guy in the room.
He's usually the shortest too!
Clinton is a Felon!
I like Reich! Kinda not!
thank god colbert knows how to put it in words the average american can understand--
actually
Reich ENDORSED obama if you watch the whole clip to the end...!!!
Chocolate Bunny!!!
Chocolate Bunny!!!
Chocolate Bunny!!!
Gobama '08
ps - why did you not comment on this, Nicole?
Obama people just can't stand it if there's one Democrat out there who hasn't endorsed their Golden Boy. Especially if it's a high-profile MAN.
He endorsed Obama. I think what made many Democrats mad was the bit about Hillary praising John McCain as having more experience than Barack. He is right, I don't think any Democrat in the past has put down a member of their own party while at the very same time lifting up the Republican candidate. This quite honestly was a new low even for the Clintons, and that is saying something. I am not sure that can be forgiven or should be.
kaT @ 7:
Hahahaha...........THAT is priceless
I worked for Robert Reich at the Labor Department. Clinton slung him under the bus, too.
Reich got stuff done in spite of the Clintons, so for him to take a pass on endorsing Hillary is speaking loudly. As in "I remember you slinging me under the bus while I was at the Labor Department with that NAFTA crap."
Any of the other Clinton cabinet members endorsed Hillary yet. Rodney Slater, former Transportation Secretary has been real quiet...
SassySandy @ 8:
Technically, she is right about the amount of experience. Her and McCain have longer tenures in public service. Obama and his supporters should focus on quality over quantity when it comes to experience.
Kay @ 11:
She just has an extra term as a federal senator over Obama. He was a state senator....
And you are right, experience by itself means nothing. Now, was that a "good" or a "bad" experience...
Because McCain sure does beat them both in terms of "experience" I would not want any part in his "experience" though...
Kay @ 11:
screw this experience crap-- nixon and lbj had plenty of experience, and you could argue that george even has experience-- it means nothing if they are pure dipshits that don't give a rats ass about the american people--
The main thing is that statement she made about John McCain bringing a lifetime of experience to the table will be repeated in Republican ads from now until November. How stupid! Yet total Clintonian. Throw your own under the bus.
Kay @ 11:
Does being First Lady counts as "tenures in public service" ?!?
Reich, Robert Rubin, Bruce Babbit, Bill Richardson, Janet Reno . . .
Remember when cabinet secretaries were actually intelligent, competent people of integrity who respected the constitution?
Seems like a million years ago, in an alternate universe.
I was lucky enough to have been around Reich a little when he was at Harvard. I'd be hard pressed to think of a time there when he wasn't the smartest AND shortest person in the room.
Well, maybe when Tom Schelling was in the room... At least the smartest part, anyway.
At the very end, Colbert asked Reich which he would want in his Easter basket: A marshmallow chick or a chocolate bunny. Reich chose the chocolate bunny.
Phil S. @ 18:
As others have said, how curious that this final exchange was left out of the transcript.
Reich has been wrong plenty, but clearly he has a better political ear than the Clintons.
It's cool -- she'll make an excellent Vice-President.
Phil S. @ 18:
So would I, but then I hate marshmallow and like Clinton over the Chicago pol.
All I'm saying is don't read too much into the choice of the bunny.
kaT @ 7:
huh? You must like marshmallow peeps. Thats cool, but why, "especially a high-profile MAN?"
Is it possible that some people don't want to vote for Senator Clinton because they don't think she is the right person for the job? It's possible right? I'm still pulling for Obama to get the Democratic nomination. But I'll probably vote for Cynthia Mckinny in the General election. I don't want to be a racist or a sexist. I just want the war to end and Bush/Cheney investigated and imprisoned for their crimes. Is that too much to ask?
CHOCOLATE BUNNY !!!!
Phil S. @ 18:
But he didn't say a white chocolate bunny.
Paul in LA @ 20:
For John Mc"BringOnDaTerrists"ain!!
thanks for sharing
Al M, Boston MA @ 21:
Huh? He knew what the game was - you just heard someone who's met him say he was always the smartest guy in the room, at harvard. So now you are telling us you think he didn't get the trick question - chocolate bunny/marshmellow chick? Pahlease. Reiche has been friends with the Clintons for decades and now when Hill is running he doesn't endorse her? That ALONE is an endorsement of the chocolate bunny, er, I mean Obama...
Annoyed Canuck @ 16:
It goes back and forth. Reagan had real jokers in too. hmm Demos and RePUGs maybe that is the key.
Dems are at war with each other. Bush, McCain, and Rove loves it.
Personally, I will vote for Obama or Clinton come November and fight the Republicans in any legal way.
Yourself?
natisman @ 28:
Starting with Reagan, the Republicans would say the government wasn't the answer, it was the problem, that government didn't work.
Then they would get themselves elected and prove that government didn't work. They would appoint incompetent, indifferent people.
It was a ruse. The purpose was and has been to privatize the government.
We now have government by corporation. It is not an accident.
Alice in Wonderland @ 30:
Actually we now have the biggest baddest mafia ever. The Corporation is just the front for all the crimes.
Pegatha @ 19:
Crooksandliars staff probably don't want to become partisan in the party in-fight. Understandable really.
Paul in LA @ 20:
Would Travis Tritt agree to be the warm-up act at a Billy Ray Cyrus concert?
(I get it, though, lol.)
She is the Travis Tritt of presidential candidates, grouping herself in with venerable "greats" of long experience, LMAO, like Tritt grouped himself in with Hank Williams and Marty Robbins, saying Cyrus had lowered the music to an "ass-wiggling contest." That's exactly who she reminds me of! Travis Tritt was nothing but a "new Country" newcomer, partly responsible for lowering the music to noise that all sounds the same. I'd like to see her and McCain become very happy together in Obscurity Town by 1-20-09. If I'm not mistaken, she REITERATED her dismissal of Barack Obama by linking herself with McCain AGAIN. This won't do, dammit. Maybe she could go back and sign the Kyl-Lieberman bill AGAIN TOO. It doesn't seem to have pissed off her base a bit.
Now that's it, I'm done (again) with this divisiveness between Democratic camps. Swear.
The jokes on all of us.
Unfortuantely
Ill take Bill Hicks over Colbert, ANYTIME .
There's a joke going round here in the UK - We all want Hillary elected cos we can call her in the middle of the night without skipping breakfast!
John @ 36:
hahahah!!!!!!!!!! (...serious face)
OK, I've had it! Shillery has said that McSame is more qualified than Obama. WTF is this lady talking about? Clinton did the thing with Canada and we are seeing Rove-Clinton.
Check it out! I've had it with this BITCH.
L.A. Confidential @ 29:
Exactly. The best interest of the Republic party is to keep the feudin' Democrats in the headlines. Democrats will seem hateful of each other, and disorganized. Meanwhile, McCain will start giving speeches to show his mad statesmanship skillz, he'll keep throwing barbecues, and the media will continue to wear holes in their kneepads and use up boxes of chin napkins.
Perhaps the only thing I respect about rightwingers and Republicans is their ability to squeeze out razor-thin victories and then govern as if they had a mandate. Since the Gingrich-led takeover in 1994 there has been very little intraparty dissension. If there had even been a handful of moderate, "maverick" Republicans, the shitstorm of the past seven years would have been only a light crap drizzle. But no, they have all bought into their own lies, and the globe spins more dangerously than it ever has.
[Deleted-Sitemonitor]
You know, just because the Repubs say that Dems are about to go to war with each other, this doesn't mean we have to oblige them. Whatever you think about the candidates, we should keep in mind that being too divisive will only help the Repubs.
wily1 @ 42:
Yep. Republicans have a recent history of relying on everything except the strength of their ideas to win elections, perhaps because their ideas are rather limp. By necessity, their lack of tangible policy successes has forced them to run finger-pointing campaigns. They'll try to do something similar from now until November. Rather than trumpeting McCain's plans for America, they'll point at the feudin' Democrats and say, "Look, at least we are not like THAT."
One problem that I see is that the media are enamored of the horse race aspect of the Democratic race. The media want to see prolonged fighting and intraparty bloodshed because it is such good theater, and because it allows them to avoid any sort of investigative reporting whatsoever. I swear, the past few weeks, media coverage of the Democratic race has been little more than an extended episode of "he said, she said."
wily1 @ 42:
As Will Rogers famously said: 'I don't belong to an organized political party, that's why I'm a Democrat!"
Typhonis @ 32:
I respectfully disagree.
Read again how C&L spun it: "Robert Reich, former Clinton Labor Secretary, appears to give his enthusiastic endorsement of the democratic process and to dismiss Colbert’s charge that the Democratic party is destroying itself from within, but just won’t give an enthusiastic endorsement of a specific candidate, no matter how many ways Colbert tries to wheedle it out of him."
I don't think it's picking at nits to assert that this is a mischaracterization of Reich's very deliberate signal. And, as the other poster mentioned, his choice not to endorse Clinton in and of itself could be considered an Obama nod.
Come on, I'm a big C&L fan, but this was inaccurate, whether it was deliberate spin or not.
L.A. Confidential @ 29:
I personally will start caring about the unity and well being of the Dems as soon as some of their front runners start to do so.
Since as far as Hillary is concerned, this race is first and foremost about her, with our interests and the unity of the dem party coming at pretty distant notches. I will most definitively pass on voting for her if she is the Dem nominee. Since she is not willing to compromise, neither will I.
Pegatha @ 46:
Pegatha, I am taking Reich at his word that he does not want to endorse either candidate. I thought it was reading too much into the chocolate bunny comment (maybe he just prefers chocolate to Peeps) to assume that meant he was supporting Obama, especially when he went out of his way several times to say that he was not endorsing.
You choose to not believe him and believe that to be an endorsement. It's understandable, but I respectfully disagree. And for the record, I didn't include it because we're just not going to get in the weeds on the whole Hillary vs. Barack pie fight. C&L is supporting whomever is the Democratic candidate. Period.
castanea @ 41:
It's not so clearcut. A lot of Clinton supporters would rather not vote for a black man in America. Or so they say. And they are proud of voting for a woman.
They get to do both. Obama/Clinton '08.
(John Edwards, Attorney General; Albert Gore, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations; Bill Richardson, Secretary of State; Dennis Kucinich, EPA chief; John Kerry, Supreme Court Justice...).
Nicole Belle @ 48:
He was submitting to Colbert after three importunings. Have it your way, Stephen.
That said, why endorse Clinton? She isn't going to make the grade. So Reich doesn't want to carry her bags after Obama takes the top spot. Not surprising.
Kahoneez @ 35:
Amen to that......RIP Mr. Hicks.
I think Lewis Black should've run for prez. Then he could be the first Black president.
"To lodge all power in one party and keep it there is to insure bad government and the sure and gradual deterioration of the public morals." -Mark Twain
I can't imagine how hateful it's going to be here if Clinton wins.
Dire Lobo @ 27:
That person was ME.
Sometimes a chocolate bunny is just a chocolate bunny. Reich also knows how to joke around.
However, I will say that your last point is somewhat telling.
GonzoD @ 52:
When someone shits on their own water supply, the fact that the water now tastes like shit is usually not the fault of the observer who simply pointed out to the perpetrator the idiocy of her actions.
In order for Clinton to "win" she will have to win every other state left by 20 points or more, and pick up the superdelegates she lost to Obama back.
But of course, it would never be the fault of the lady without much chance in hell of winning who decided to turn to an scorched earth approach. God forbid we would hurt her feelings!
It is funny how we are reminded about the perils of having a GOPer in the Whitehouse for another 4 yrs, so we should vote Dem no matter who the candidate ends up being. Yet one of the Dem front runners decides to point out that the GOPer candidate may be more "qualified" than her fellow Dem front runner as president.
I guess the "shut up, and do as I told not as I do" is not just an MO for the GOP elites... I guess Mrs. Clinton still is not fully over her old College Republican ways. Some MOs are hard to quit, I imagine...
Obsessing over a goddamned hypothetical piece of rabbit shaped candy. We have officially lost our collective mind.
The Dude @ 54:
Fine! If she wins vote for McCain, or stay home.
Jesus Christ, a lot of people on this site really need to grow the hell up!
Nobody can win outright now! So if the SDs vote for Clinton, it's her fault? Nothing to do with DNC's Florida & Michigan fuckup?
I know, Michigan is their own damn fault, but in Florida it was Repugs who moved the primary up.
She's attacking Obama now, big deal! Maybe he should stop his whining and attack her. It seems that his supporters have no trouble doing it.
The Dude @ 54:
Oh, snap. Nevermind she worked for McCarthy in 1972, and worked for the Nixon impeachment committee after that.
The DLC are not your favorite kind of Democrat. A LOT of people don't agree with you -- look at the voting results. All this handwringing over the most obvious ticket in years!
The Dude @ 47:
This is getting to be too much for the less enthusiastic democrats. Why is Hillary going on the attack saying that she and McCain are the more experienced? If she were to win the nomination, which I hope she doesn't, wouldn't that argument be thrown back at her as the less experienced in the general election? She is showing very little thought for the American people or the Democrats specifically by selling this horse crap. She is putting out an argument that if taken too seriously by the voters, will guarantee that the Dems will lose. How will you mend a party at the convention when you have sold it down the river? She will lose the respect of many of our party. If she wins, I will vote for her but it will be the leseer of two evils instead of voting for someone I actually want to be President. Her "experience" should have taught her that selfishness is not an admirable trait. Obama is a class act and will be there for many years to come if she doesn't ruin him and the party all in one fail swoop.
Nobody has pointed out that one of Hillary's arguments for "experience" is that she "knows what goes on in the Whitehouse".
If that's the case, then did she "know" about Monica, or was she unaware of something going on right under her nose?
:(
Now that's entertainment.
Isn't picking the chocolate bunny at the very end the endorsement??? Why was this lost on this author? Did you not watch the whole thing??????
And there are quite a few Clinton insiders that have endorsed Obama by the way. Just because you used to work for and support the Clintons in the past, doesn't mean you have to automatically support them forever. I hardly see this as "obsessing over a gd piece of rabbit shaped candy".
Great segment. Reich is almost always very sharp.
Pegatha @ 46:
I respectfully disagree.
Read again how C&L spun it: "Robert Reich, former Clinton Labor Secretary, appears to give his enthusiastic endorsement of the democratic process and to dismiss Colbert’s charge that the Democratic party is destroying itself from within, but just won’t give an enthusiastic endorsement of a specific candidate, no matter how many ways Colbert tries to wheedle it out of him."
I don't think it's picking at nits to assert that this is a mischaracterization of Reich's very deliberate signal. And, as the other poster mentioned, his choice not to endorse Clinton in and of itself could be considered an Obama nod.
Come on, I'm a big C&L fan, but this was inaccurate, whether it was deliberate spin or not.
I'm not denying it was deliberate. I'm saying it was intentional, if you read the site for long enough you can see the angle C&L is trying to push: Don't go after either candidate, show a unified front and attack the opposition party. Not necessarily a bad thing, but I agree that Hillary's behavior does deserve the scorn it's getting right now.
Damn, messed up on the quoting.
A.J.Joe @ 15:
Yea, I guess if you count changing Bill's sheets or something..
Hillary is the worst idea for a dem. president.
Terrible.
Kucinich was the best for the job, followed by Edwards, so it looks like Obama.
Lord help us if she gets the nomination.
Because that means either way, we lose..
Nicole didnt post the whole transcript, towards the end, he said he wants a chocolate bunny (Colbert's analogy for Obama). I am also surprised C&L didnt take the Shillary camp on for the 3 am ad which was blatant fear mongering as practised by Rove, but they definitely pedalled Hillary's line "They are going hard on me coz I am a woman"...
Some Fox like reporting going on here Nicole?
Lisa @ 61:
This author is not interested in being fair or supporting facts (remember this is a blog not a news website and this is an outlet for *their* opinions).. Yet again this site disappoints me
Nicole Belle @ 48:
Jiminy Jilliker @ 55:
Sadly, yes.