Advice to the Democrats, by Bill Maher

[Eddie Teach]

I don't think you understand show business.  The last thing Maher wants is to be like another comic (Jon Stewart and Dennis Miller do, indeed, spring to mind - but that niche is covered).  Maher wants to be unique, and uses this hilariously extreme approach in order to be unique.

I think what Ann Coulter does is mostly show business too.

[grumbler]

I think what Ann Coulter does is mostly show business too.

Disagree.  I would guess she gets far more of her income from speaking fees than from show business.  I'd bet the opposite of Maher.

[Eddie Teach]

She gets those fees(as well as book sales, another big chunk of her income) because she's sold herself playing a character on the news.  Besides, you wouldn't call Michael Jordan or Tiger Woods "actors" because they've raked in so much money making commercials.

[viper37]

They both turn off the middle.

Do they really?
Or fo they shock them enough to bring them over their side, wichever was closest from 'their' middle?

[viper37]

If there was no Maher, the Dems would be in infinitesimally better shape than they are now. That there are similarly toxic Republicans who counterbalance him doesn't change the fact that *his* effect is negative.

I think people like Michael Moore and Sean Penn do a lot of damages to the Democrats, much more than any tv/radio host could ever do.

[Caliga]

and I do have to admit he is funny and entertaining.

Religulous FTW. 

[Martinus]

Frankly, I don't think the US has a "leftist equivalent of Ann Coulter", at least in absolute terms (i.e. as hateful and evil, but directing his or her attacks against supporters of the Republican party). American politics is too skewed to the right to have a truly evil left (say, the communist equivalent of dominionists, for example).

[Eddie Teach]

I think people like Michael Moore and Sean Penn do a lot of damages to the Democrats, much more than any tv/radio host could ever do.

Everybody watches tv just as everybody watches movies, there's the same potential audience either way. But my point wasn't about the amount of damage he does, but rather that his overall effect, however small, was damaging rather than supporting the cause.

[Barrister]

I think what Ann Coulter does is mostly show business too.

Disagree.  I would guess she gets far more of her income from speaking fees than from show business.  I'd bet the opposite of Maher.

Probably true, but that doesn't mean she isn't in "show business".  You still need to be entertaining and engaging in order to rake in big speaking fees.

[crazy canuck]

I think what Ann Coulter does is mostly show business too.

Disagree.  I would guess she gets far more of her income from speaking fees than from show business.  I'd bet the opposite of Maher.

Probably true, but that doesn't mean she isn't in "show business".  You still need to be entertaining and engaging in order to rake in big speaking fees.

So now we are going to include Al Gore and George Bush as being in show business?

[grumbler]

Probably true, but that doesn't mean she isn't in "show business".  You still need to be entertaining and engaging in order to rake in big speaking fees.

I suppose that, if you ignore the meaning of the term "show business," you could say that she is in show business.

You could say that about anyone under those conditions, though.  Rather defeats the purpose of having the term.

[grumbler]

So now we are going to include Al Gore and George Bush as being in show business?

  That's a problem with defining "show business" so loosely.  I'd argue, though, that George Bush is more in "show business" than Ann Coulter is.  he is doing this to make money, while she is doing it to try to influence policies and votes.  Maher is doing it for the money.

[grumbler]

She gets those fees(as well as book sales, another big chunk of her income) because she's sold herself playing a character on the news.  Besides, you wouldn't call Michael Jordan or Tiger Woods "actors" because they've raked in so much money making commercials.

I would call none of Coulter, Woods, or Jordan actors, and I would call Maher one.

[Barrister]

I think what Ann Coulter does is mostly show business too.

Disagree.  I would guess she gets far more of her income from speaking fees than from show business.  I'd bet the opposite of Maher.

Probably true, but that doesn't mean she isn't in "show business".  You still need to be entertaining and engaging in order to rake in big speaking fees.

So now we are going to include Al Gore and George Bush as being in show business?

In 2010?  Sure.

[alfred russel]

Does anyone remember the old days when Maher was a basically nonpartisan libertarian?