Jon Stewart Defends Rick Perry From Ed Schultz’s Race-Baiting Charges

Texas Governor Rick Perry spoke earlier this week of a "big black cloud that hangs over America." He was clearly referring to the nation's mammoth debt. But the ever-vigilant MSNBC host Ed Schultz scented racism in the remark, saying that that "big black cloud Perry is talking about is President Barack Obama." Schultz later apologized for his bungled interpretation, admitting that he did not present the "full context" of Perry's comment.
The blunder illustrates the extent to which Rick Perry's entrance into the presidential race has addled the liberal media. To Schultz, Perry is a racist who "comes from the radical country club that loves to remind white America that President Obama is other: not like you." To other members of the liberal chattering class, he is a "Manchurian candidate," "secessionist," and dangerous theocrat for having prayed in public recently.


After a roundup of the media’s incredibly short attention span that had them running from Rep. Michele Bachmann to Perry to Rep. Paul Ryan– a game he surmised to a child demanding his mother buy him all the latest toys (“and before I get you anything, where is your Ron Paul?!”), Stewart played the abridged clip of Perry referring to the cloud over America, followed by accusations that he was talking about the President. “What? Pretty sure Rick Perry was saying the black cloud was the debt,” Stewart noted– indeed, “debt” was only two words after “cloud” in Perry’s comments. “That’s the thing about clouds,” Stewart joked, “some people see a racist dog whistle, while some people see George Washington wrestling a leprechaun.”


To help him figure out whether the comment was racist or not, Stewart employed the help of correspondent Cenac, but got John Oliver anyway, who seemed to think anything except actual racism was offensive (he also really liked The Help). After some banter on whether Perry was racist, Cenac turned the tables on the origin of this meme (who has since apologized), noting that Schultz had used all sorts of “slurs,” like “red herring” (what’s he trying to say about Native American people?”) and “yellow monster” (he was talking about a lobster, but Cenac and Oliver assumed it was a veiled reference to China, despite the obvious lack of evidence).


Between standing up for Rep. Ron Paul against a stream of media apathy, Stewart seems to be making a lot more friends in the Republican Party that he has for himself in a while.