Video: AEI’s Pletka takes on Ben Affleck
posted at 1:39 pm on October 15, 2006 by Ian
Send to a Friend |
Share on Facebook | printer-friendly
(hat tip: Noel at Newsbusters)
Noel Sheppard, as usual, does a great job summarizing last night’s fight between actor Ben Affleck and host Bill Maher on Real Time:
It is quite doubtful that HBO’s Bill Maher knew what he was in for when he scheduled Danielle Pletka of the American Enterprise Institute to be on his “Real Time” panel Friday night. After all, with CNN’s Lou Dobbs and liberal actor Ben Affleck surrounding her, it seemed highly unlikely the lone conservative in the discussion would survive the scrum, let alone win the debate. However, not only did Pletka hold her own, but she also ended up schooling Maher and Affleck on a virtual plethora of geopolitical issues making this one of the more enjoyable Friday Night Fights in recent memory (video link to follow).
The first lesson came when Affleck had the gall to suggest that Iran and North Korea “became more evil after” President Bush made his Axis of Evil speech during the 2002 State of the Union address (emphasis mine):
BEN AFFLECK: In terms of the history of Iran, you had a fairly reform-minded guy who then was followed by Ahmadinejad because here, we’re a little afraid, we don’t know culturally how to reach out to the United States, and then you hear “Axis of Evil,” and that only emboldens the reactionary, the far-right within Iran (side chatter). In terms of North Korea, you know, they had their nuclear program, there were, you know, inspectors there, it was taped up, there were cameras, as soon as they heard “Axis of Evil,” boom, the inspectors were thrown out, the cameras were turned off, and they began resuming this program. And, I think it’s a sign of how this kind of bellicose, one-linerisms in politics have consequences.
Watch how it plays out:
Thanks to Webloggin for providing the video.
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Blowback
Note from Hot Air management: This section is for comments from Hot Air's community of registered readers. Please don't assume that Hot Air management agrees with or otherwise endorses any particular comment just because we let it stand. A reminder: Anyone who fails to comply with our terms of use may lose their posting privilege.
Trackbacks/Pings
Trackback URL
Comments
Someone tell Affleck to stick with poker…
What a clown and a joke…
ar_basin on October 15, 2006 at 1:46 PM
So, now the primary “evil” in the world is condescension? If only…
CP on October 15, 2006 at 2:05 PM
Why was Gigli on there, seriously? Who cares what he has to say about this?
Notice that, until Dobbs at the end, no one was offering solutions. It was just a big “Bush is a fu** up” fest, which is what it always is on the left. Come up with ideas and plans!!! It’s going to be a sad day when the Dems win by default without articulating a single plan except tax increases.
RightWinged on October 15, 2006 at 2:09 PM
I love her.
Christoph on October 15, 2006 at 2:09 PM
You know that the lefties are getting pwned when the audience becomes so creepily silent.
And, interestly, we also learned the Maher and the other UN types don’t read the UNs own reports.
DaveS on October 15, 2006 at 2:18 PM
Lou Dobbs (video conclusion) “We have got to awaken in this country to rational thought.”
Good luck with that. Let me know when it happens. It ain’t gonna happen on Bill Maher’s show.
Danielle Pletka, you did good, girl. Real good.
EFG on October 15, 2006 at 2:18 PM
I’m glad that clip ended when it did, my eardrums almost burst from listening to that drivel. I might have blacked out once or twice.
If that isn’t transferring the actions of Saddam Hussein to the U.S. then what is?
(Wonder Twin powers, activate. Form of sarcasm.)
Oh, yes. The U.S. is responsible for the hatred between Shias and Sunnis in Iraq. It had nothing to do with the years of abuse and slaughter of Hussein’s regime against both the Shiites and the Kurds. The fact that in 1991 they tried to overthrow him and failed, and in reprisal Hussein ordered the brutal slaughter of thousands of the them is just a co-inky-dink. The blame has to be placed on the U.S. and their d*mned tyrannical ideas of freedom, democracy, and self-defense.
(Wonder Twin powers, deactivate.)
As far as who is assigned blame by the Arab countries for their own self-destruction is irrelevant. The U.S. will always be culpable in their eyes for all their problems.
Gotta hand it to Noel, though, she didn’t back down from Maher’s attempts at bullying, as usual.
Lone Star on October 15, 2006 at 2:22 PM
Yeah,we create terrorism when we defend ourselves and call a spade a spade.
Oh well,now I can’t watch any of Kevin Smith’s movies either,I would just throw things at the screen when this moron comes on.
bbz123 on October 15, 2006 at 2:30 PM
Those liberals really DO live in an altered state of consciousness.
SouthernGent on October 15, 2006 at 3:19 PM
2008 - Affleck/Streisand against Giuliani/Pletka
Entelechy on October 15, 2006 at 3:21 PM
Liberals will go to any lengths and cling to any type of tortured reasoning to AVOID fighting anyone. Even if it means calling US the bad guys! So if believing that a murderous enemy just “became” murderous when we called them murderers, keeps you out of a fight, no problem. If it means running away, while defecating in your yellow liberal pants and calling it “RE-DEPLOYMENT TO OKINAWA”, no problemo!
Seriously folks, what war have liberals EVER wanted to fight? Don ‘t say Kosovo, because they specifically DIDN’T want to “fight on the ground” because of coward liberal fears about “body counts”, they wanted to “bomb” from 30,000 ft so that they could fool themselves about all of the Kosovoans they just incinerated. Theirs is an ideology borne of cowardice as all notable liberals have a yellow streak in them a mile and a half wide. Don’t you get it? Everything about them, from their school policies which make RITALIN JUNKIES out of “AGGRESSIVE” boys,( read the word “aggressive” with Rush Limbaughs faggot liberal voice), to not playing dodge ball because, (voice again) “someone might get hurt”, to not keeping score during childrens’ games because, “there really are no losers”, these people are YELLA! Bunch’a queers the whole lot of ‘em. Riddle me this Batman, what manly thing has a liberal EVER done? Hmmmmm. The silence is deafening. You’d actually have to go back to WWll to find any relevant examples, which would be bombing the shit out of Japan, think that could happen today? If someone actually NUKED US, do any of you out there think the liberals, the FILTHY fifth column of subversion in this country, would be on board with equivalent retaliation? I think not, “Caller, what say you”?
Soothsayer on October 15, 2006 at 3:27 PM
#1 - She said her kids watching, and Bill goes ahead and becomes a drunken sailor..what respect
#2 - She owned Bill after the comparison between USA Military and Saddam…Bill Becomes an ass again.
#3 - Let’s hope Dobb’s never runs for any office.
I am sick and tired…(oops..sounding like Billary for a second)…of these left wingers trying to place bame on the USA. Who is keeping thier blinders in place????
Yes they are so vitriol and I can not understad it. But at the same time I must say that Bill Maher is a waste of sperm and egg
lsutiger on October 15, 2006 at 4:04 PM
Nauseating. How twisted can three brains get? Danielle was the only one in her right mind — literally. Ben Affleck is a bumbling idiot. We made them more evil by calling them the axis of evil? Yeah, that’s a good one Ben. I won’t be watching anymore Hollywood crap with your face in them. Stupidity gone to seed.
wytammic on October 15, 2006 at 4:20 PM
Dang, my post disappeared. Oh well, I just said that the whole thing was nauseating and that those three idiots are twisted. Danielle is the only one in her right mind – literally. Ben Affleck is a bumbling idiot. The bad ol’ US made them more evil when President Bush called it like it is. Those three are just stupidity gone to seed. Freaking stupid I’m telling you.
wytammic on October 15, 2006 at 4:25 PM
Well, I suppose that all depends on who is in the white house. If it’s Bush, I’m sure they would first blame the attack on him and then wait to see what his response would be and then oppose it. If Bush were to move to attack, they would condemn it. If Bush were to not move to attack, they would condemn that too. Which is what they are doing right now with Korea.
EFG on October 15, 2006 at 5:32 PM
Somehow you can’t be a good liberal unless you hate the United States, want to see her defeated and will do anything in your “power” to further those ends. Will they flourish with no freedoms after they have destroyed America? Can you imagine a liberal imagining that? They can’t see the end of their noses in a mirror. Liberalism is a mental disorder.
Neocon Peg on October 15, 2006 at 5:44 PM
Wow — 3 on 1 and she whupped them good! Assfleck and Maher may have violated that whole “never come to a gun battle armed with a knife” Cliche` one too many times. I hear he took residence in Charlottesville to try and go for a senate seat should Allen try a run for the presidency. I think he proved that he lacks any intellectual honesty to do anything but be Matt Damon’s butt boy.
whtabtbill on October 15, 2006 at 6:10 PM
That was my thought initially, and then I realized Maher apparently needed Affleck to defend him. How he can live with himself knowing that is beyond me.
B Moe on October 15, 2006 at 6:35 PM
I must have watched the wrong clip. In the small feeble minds of liberals … she got her ass whipped. There’s not a single liberal that will acknowledge that she had a clue.
My point? It doesn’t matter how accurate her information was, or how inaccurate the other morons were … liberals go away believing that another conservative Bush supporter just got embarrassed on national television.
Although she was correct and they were wrong … I’m not exactly sure how anyone can conclude that she “schooled them.” She was mobbed not only by two clueless actors, but by the entire audience.
Gregor on October 15, 2006 at 6:45 PM
Maher laments the current undeniable cockfight.
Maher argues the cockfight is worse than Iraq under Saddam.
Maher would refrain from describing Saddam as a benevolent dictator but he cleary prefers Saddam’s regime for Iraqis - for their own good - not simply to spare the American fighting man.
Apartheid. It’s not just a a black-white thing. It’s not just a South Africa thing. Maher seems ill-informed enough to believe otherwise. He surely thinks ’supports apartheid’ is a rhetorical cudgel to which he’s impervious. He’s wrong.
He’s just stated he favors the state of affairs in pre-invasion Iraq to the state of affairs in post-invasion Iraq.
Pre-invasion Iraq was a sectarian apartheid state. It was certainly more internally stable then than it is now. A sectarian minority brutaly ruled over a sectarian majority. And Maher is more sanguine about that state of affairs.
This cockfight Maher deplores is between those who are dying to re-institute apartheid in Iraq and those who are dying to make an apartheid government a nothing but a memory.
It’s an ugly, horrible fight, cruelly and ruthlessly fought. I hope it ends soon. I wish it could have been avoided. But to long for the good old days of apartheid enduced “stability”? That’s Maher’s schtick.
Stephen M on October 15, 2006 at 7:51 PM
So Bennifer is now being invited on talk shows to offer his retarded insights regarding geopolitics?
Who’s next? Mr Magoo? Tom and Jerry?
Egads. A clown earning a living memorizing somebody else’s writing being consulted on global issues?
Stop the world. I want off. Too many farking idiots on this ridiculous planet.
Misha I on October 15, 2006 at 9:02 PM
True story. The crowd was eatting up all the idiocy of Affleck, as if he’s some informed political expert. Without Maher and his Daily Show on steriods crowd, Pletka schooled them, but to a casual viewer who doesn’t already know the deal, they wouldn’t get the same impression from watching that clip as us.
RightWinged on October 15, 2006 at 9:46 PM
uuuhhh…. Mr. Mahr, the Shia and Sunni have been “cock fighting” for 1400 years.
Catnip on October 15, 2006 at 9:57 PM
What I want to know is where did they get that audience? Or was it canned? Every dimwitted thing Affleck said was cheered. It’s hard to believe that a room full of people would do that.
Kevin R on October 15, 2006 at 10:09 PM
I don’t know how you guys do it, that go do it. My skin is too thin. I’d pay for a thicker hide that would let me get in there like that. Or even better, the way Dennis Miller does it, laughing all the way through.
I have trouble even watching it without tightening up.
Axe on October 15, 2006 at 10:32 PM
Pletka kept correcting Maher so she definately came across as the most informed. Ben Afflick wasn’t the brightest kitten in the litter, that’s for sure. As far as the audience, these are Bill Maher’s groupies. They don’t think, they just respond to his asinine comments and those of other like minded fools.
Rose on October 15, 2006 at 10:46 PM
Wow….when Lou Dobbs is the voice of reason, you know that it’s a joke of a discussion.
webproze on October 15, 2006 at 11:02 PM
Makes me embarrassed that Affleck is a Red Sox Fan. What an idiot.
nailinmyeye on October 15, 2006 at 11:35 PM
Affleck and Maher have shit for brains.
georgej on October 16, 2006 at 12:49 AM
Liberals must have been so proud to see 3 liberal men try to beat up on one conservative woman on political issues, and lose. The next time Maher had better get a professional woman abuser, like Cigarman, for his show.
I doubt if any ‘progressive’ in the audience learned a single thing [except that Maher is an a$$], but I’m sure they were disappointed by the poor liberal debate offered for their pleasure. Hearing Lou Dobbs bash Clinton, and McCain at the end didn’t please them at all.
I wish that Danielle Pletka was running for office right now.
DannoJyd on October 16, 2006 at 6:18 AM
Was Affleck acting as a half wit trying to come off like an informed mimbo, or was that the real half wit talking? What a maroon.
Ms Pletka has the right stuff. Three against one with a hostile audience and she did not even break a sweat.
How does Maher get air time? He is a like a stain that keeps coming back. Same old half truth nonesense, but he is aging fast in more ways than one.
Hening on October 16, 2006 at 9:03 AM
Is it just me, or did Ben Affleck have a look on his face that he is not used to being contradicted in any way shape or form? So did Bill Maher for that matter. So used to being agreed with and applauded for their point of view without challenge.
CrimsonFisted on October 16, 2006 at 9:35 AM
Had that panel had a little more time I’m sure Affleck and friends would have blamed the President for the Crucifiction, WWI & WWII, Pearl Harbor and the Lindbergh kidnapping. I’ve never seen this kind of hatred for a sitting President but then the Democrats gauge a President’s performance by how many blow jobs he gets in the Oval Office.
repvoter on October 16, 2006 at 10:40 AM
Johnson, Nixon, Clinton.
First two chose not to run for a 2nd term, last was impeached. No contest.
honora on October 16, 2006 at 11:44 AM
i just lost all respect for Ben Affleck.
Starblazer on October 16, 2006 at 1:07 PM
I see Honora hasn’t educated herself in my absence. She has an unsurprisingly abysmal knowledge of history that is typical for most liberals.
Newsflash, clueless one: Nixon not only ran for a second term, he defeated George McGovern by one of the widest margins in American history.
Is it a standard trait for all liberals to spout off aimlessly knowing their opinions have no basis in fact? When you toss out stinkers like that - do you have the good sense to be embarrassed?
Professor Blather on October 16, 2006 at 7:47 PM
There were three asses in that room, and Pletka handed them all back to their owners. That was so much fun to watch, it made my day!
I suppose if one did not care about things like facts and accuracy, one could say that she did not win that little debate; thankfully, no one like that hangs around here.
We need more of this on TV. More of liberal idiots being exposed for twisting information or flat making things up. Makes one feel good to see someone swinging around a cluebat like that.
Still amounts to casting your pearls before swine, though. Sad, really.
theholyhermit on October 17, 2006 at 1:44 AM