Leno was joking around, and asks him for a million dollars (pocket money for John McCain) how many houses he has, and you won't believe his answer!*

*You will.

Ok, so watching Johnny Mac go the well yet again on the POW story to explain his ignorance about how many houses he and his wife own on the Leno Show made me think of Sam Kinison.... Sam Kinison? you say, just watch and listen.

Some of you may have seen McCain's 'hilarious' joke made earlier today at the LiveStrong Summit. It was so funny that it brought McCain himself to tears... I guess he must have forgot the punchline that it caught him by surprise!

Here's the video if you haven't seen it yet:
http://www.youtube.com/...

That's all great, but I was randomly browsing late night jokes this past week and came across a strikingly similar one made by Jay Leno:

"There was a huge reception for Barack Obama in the Middle East this past weekend. People were screaming, chasing him, hanging on his every word. And that was just the U.S. press corps." --Jay Leno (July 21, 2008)

For comparison, here's McCain's words:

"In a scene Lance would recognize, a throng of adoring fans awaits Senator Obama in Paris -- and that's just the American press." --McCain (July 25,2008)

Copycat?

► Notice how camera flashes pop throughout his remarks.
*

► The US Embassy turned into a MADHOUSE last night, as GIs gave Barack an OVERWHELMING reception (transcript and pix below).

► Chris Matthews made a moving appeal on last nite's Tonight Show, asking voters to "open their hearts" and vote for Barack.  I’m not kidding.  Transcript and clip below.

► And bringing in the funny, MSNBC compares McSame with The Joker (clip below).  

► The Candy Store is now Open.

You know, some of us are really serious about the future of our country and we think our political leadership is going to have the biggest role in whether things continue to deteriorate or they will begin to get better.  We've felt this way for a long time.  And we actually get mad when the candidates for the presidency are reduced to caricatures and punch lines.  Dukakis in a tank?  Dan Quayle can't spell 'potato', Al Gore invented the internet, John Kerry windsurfing?  These are not disqualifying events.  Fodder for comedians?  Sure.  Funny is funny.  But it's not funny if it distorts the electorate's decision about who should be president.  Bill Carter has an article in the New York Times about how hard it is for comics to make jokes about Barack Obama:

In her speech yesterday, in Boca Raton, FL, Hillary spoke of how the outcome of elections should be determined by the will of the people, a "supporter" sitting behind her is engrossed in her argument to count all the votes.

::

I've been reading Kos daily for over 2 years now and have really enjoyed the community here.  In all that time, though, I've never written a diary, as I really just enjoyed seeing everyone's takes on different things here.  But today I finally feel like I have something I want to post.

President Bush offers his support for an Iraq War veteran on last night's show

It seems that President Bush has a lot of extra time on his hands (I blogged about this lack of things on his 'to do' list last week with his papal activities).  So it came as no real surprise when he showed up on NBC's 'Deal or No Deal' game show program last night.  Here's the entire clip:

Tonight was Rachel Maddow's debut as Countdown's guest host, and I thought she did a beautiful job! I could tell she was a little nervous at the beginning, and she even acknowledged as such in her segment with Gene Robinson, but she did wonderfully. I really hope she gets the chance to do this again, or, better yet, GET HER OWN SHOW ON MSNBC!

Cross-posted at Attytood.

News item:

BURBANK, Calif. (AP) - Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton made fun of herself Thursday, telling "Tonight Show" host Jay Leno she almost didn't make it to his studio.

"It is so great to be here, I was so worried I wasn't going to make it. I was pinned down by sniper fire," Clinton said after joining him onstage, referring to her claims—since disputed—that she dodged sniper bullets while arriving in Bosnia as first lady. Clinton later said she had "misspoke."

Woke up early this morning in the middle of a driving Texas hailstorm and flipped on the TV to see if things were better in other parts of the world. Still haven't broken the habit of tuning in Morning Joe yet, although I AM working on it....

Flipped on MSNBC and, as I took my first slug of coffee, was treated to footage of Hillary on Leno, yukking it up over her lies about Bosnian sniper fire.

I snarled so loud in response that I woke the small person up -- and, after some snuggling that lasted until the next time they rolled the tape, my eight-year-old, Sadie, had some choice observations for Hills:

Hillary Clinton appeared on the Tonight Show last night and joked about sniper fire. I can hardly put my anger and disappointment into words.

Hillary says sniper fire comments were

"a mismatch of words and actions"

"a lapse", if you will.

In honor of April Fool's Day, I'm pleased to present my latest compilation of late-night laughs courtesy of Daniel Kurtzman at About.com.

CONAN O'BRIEN

"Well, of course, this Sunday is Easter. Of course, Easter is that very, very holy day when Christians around the world honor a 2,000-year-old Jewish man who is not Larry King."

"Another political sex scandal in the New York area in the papers today. Unbelievable what's going on lately. This is the latest. A man who used to be the chauffeur for New Jersey's former governor, Jim McGreevey, is claiming that he used to have three-way sex with McGreevy and his wife. Yeah. True story. When asked about it, McGreevey said, 'That's a lie. I would never have had sex with my wife.'"

"Hillary Clinton, hard at work campaigning today. That's right. Today, Hillary Clinton said that the war would end up costing $1 trillion. Hillary wasn't talking about Iraq. She was talking about her war with Barack Obama."

Many more below the fold!

Let me start by saying that I for one will vote for either one of the Democratic candidates in November. I really and truly wish that we and the rest of America could turn our attention to destroying John McBush. There are so many problems in the country and the world we need to refocus our energies on making sure that as a party we come together in November to ensure a Democrat is in the WH.

Everytime there is a rumor floated, by people we really shouldn't be paying attention to, about a forthcoming endorsement there are the usual suspects. The suspects who feel the necessity to point out all the evils of John Edwards, and explain to the world he is a man without integrity. For some reason some feel the need to disparage a man who not only moved the dialogue leftward, but had the integrity to "let history blaze it's path".

Via TPM, from Greg Sargent:

Edwards Didn't Endorse Anyone On Leno Tonight, NBC Flack Confirms
By Greg Sargent - March 20, 2008, 9:02PM
John Edwards just finished up taping his appearance on Jay Leno tonight -- it hasn't aired yet. The fact that he was appearing on the show prompted many to wonder whether he would use the appearance to endorse Hillary or Obama.

The answer: Nope. He didn't endorse either, according to Leno's publicist, Tracy St. Pierre, who emails me this:

No news...it was a catching up interview, but he didn't throw his support either way.
So no Edwards endorsement for now.

Someone on the open threads mentioned that John Edwards will be appearing on Jay Leno on Thursday, March 20.  I checked the NBC schedule and this is indeed a fact.  http://www.nbc.com/...

What on earth could he possibly have to talk about on the Jay Leno show that hasn’t already been discussed?

Being an educated, latté-sipping Black woman, from the boutique state of Louisiana, with a media background, I began thinking about the demographics of the Tonight Show.  

Update: Some comments suggested that this show could be a repeat.  However on the NBC link I listed above it says its an "ALL NEW" show.

On Tuesday, Jan. 15, 2008, four Kucinich supporters/impeachment activists interrupted "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" during Bill Maher's appearance.  The same night, presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich was shut out from MSNBC's Democratic debate in Las Vegas.

The first one shouted: "Let Dennis debate! Stop the censorship! Help save democracy! Let Dennis debate!".  Later in the same segment, another activist shouted: "GE, NBC, Put Impeachment on TV!"

Both were escorted out by security and warned not to return to NBC. They respectfully complied, but later posted a video clip of the Tonight Show segment on Youtube, with subtitles to make it clear what they were saying from the audience.

After a few days, NBC demanded that YouTube delete the subtitled clip from the activists' YouTube account due to claims of "copyright infringement".     YouTube immediately complied.  (See the clip at Hecklers on Tonight Show where it's still running on Huffington Post.)