No, bloggers, that is not a typo (how conceded!). I am sincerely jealous of John Yoo, former official of the United States Department of Justice.
In 2010, Yoo went on The Daily Show and took on, as he says in the interview, the "infamous" Jon Stewart. Stewart, as the majority of the world knows, is a proud liberal and opponent of water boarding interrogation techniques.
Yoo, as the majority of the world did not know, was the main player in the Bush Administration's legal definition of torture.
So, as Jon (no "H"--Stewart) prepared to take on John (with an "H"--Yoo), Stewart expected to be able to rip him apart like the other conservatives that had been on the show before. However, all did not go according to plan for Mr. Stewart.
Christopher Beam's article recapping the spectacle was actually a pretty fair discription of what happened. In Stewart's attempts to embarrass Yoo, he ended up embarrassing himself.
Jon (no "H") asked great warm up questions. He kept it simple, got Yoo (and you) used to the idea of opening up and debating. From the beginning, everyone watching knew that this was as easy as it was going to get... and that Stewart was raring to go!
Then, Mr. Stewart started to let off the clutch...
Did it help? Was he able to agitate Yoo (or you)? No. He kept trying and trying to get at his interviewee, but Yoo did not let him go anywhere. The interview turned out to be less of a tribute to how great a "journalist" Stewart is and morphed into a shrine to how great a diplomat Yoo can be.
Yoo answered every question... I'll give it to Stewart, Yoo was far from answering exactly how he "should" answer. However, he did know exactly what is used as fuel and what is used as water... and a viewer cannot get angry at a smart firefighter.
As a proud conservative, I was pleased (and jealous!!) to see how well he represented my beliefs. Stewart's questions were far from easy... and for someone with less patience and knowledge than Yoo, they could have been fatal. Lucky for Yoo, John came off nice and calm with Jon Stewart looked like a selfish little kid trying to steal the spot light. There were several times were Stewart interrupted and tried to get his way. But, again, the interview continued to polish Yoo's reputation (even when he mentioned he had never met President Bush).
Overall, both the article and the interview were very entertaining and enlightening.
Finally, I have to give credit to both Jo(h)ns.
John for being so honest and calm... and Jon for stating that he harbored not hatred towards anyone with opposing view points. This said a lot about the classiness of both men.
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