Jon Stewart slams conservative reaction to Middle East unrest

“The Daily Show” was in reruns last week as violent protests erupted across the Muslim world, but back on the air Monday night, Jon Stewart addressed the turmoil in the Middle East — and particularly what he sees as the hypocritical conservative response to it.

It’s always awkward for such a topical show to respond to big news several days after it’s broken, but on the bright side, the downtime gave “The Daily Show’s” research team plenty of time to comb through old Fox News and CNN footage and compile a rather devastating montage.

Conservative pundits such as Sarah Palin and Sean Hannity were quick to seize on the unrest as evidence of President Obama’s foreign policy naivete and the danger of trying to promote democracy in the Middle East. But as Stewart pointed out, these same commentators were singing a different tune just a few years ago.

Stewart began with footage of Palin on Fox News last week declaring the foolishness of promoting democracy in “places that do not have any values for civilized society.”

“Yes, democracy promotion is wrong,” Stewart replied. “That’s a somewhat isolationist position, ex-Gov. Palin. Does anyone see our role in the world differently?”

Cut to a 2008 interview with Palin, in which she described America as “a force for good to help these rising smaller democratic countries.”

Stewart found similar inconsistencies in statements made by Hannity, Palin’s Fox News colleague. In 2006, the host predicted that then-President George W. Bush would be “viewed as a great visionary” for his role in bringing democracy to Iraq. Meanwhile, on his show last week, Hannity sounded a very different note, arguing that “you can’t just let people depose their own dictators in the name of democracy.”

“I love it when that conservative patriot guy tools on that naïve leftist [idiot],” Stewart said, as two different pictures of Hannity appeared onscreen. “What’s it called? Hannity & Takes-the-Opposite-Opinion-When-It’s-Convenient, Slightly Younger Hannity?

“We could go all night bringing up examples of pundits and bloviators on the right who couldn’t do enough to promote democracy in the Middle East as long as it was done at the end of George Bush’s gun,” Stewart continued. “But as soon as Middle Eastern countries choose leaders for themselves, lordy lord, the pearls can’t be clutched enough.”

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