The Daily Show/Jed Babbin (August 1, 2007)

Jed Babbin
Year 12, Episode 94
Airdate	August 1, 2007
Production Number
Guest(s)	Jed Babbin
July 31, 2007 Lewis Gordon Pugh	August 2, 2007 Matt Damon
The Daily Show — 2007

This is the ninety-fourth episode of the 2007 season of The Daily Show.

Correspondents: Larry Wilmore (Senior Black Correspondent)

Guest Stars: Jed Babbin (Himself)

Episode Breakdown

• The Rummy Returns: Jon compares seeing Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld answering questions on television to a giant squid having sex with Bigfoot while the ghost of Jim Morrison "claps giddily." Rumsfeld was testifying in an investigation into the friendly fire death of Pat Tillman. He expresses "personal and sincere" regret over what happened before dancing all around the question and explaining just why he has nothing to do with what happened.
• I Now Pronounce You Dick & Larry: Meanwhile, Dick Cheney was interviewed by Larry King for Larry King Live, which was an occurrence that Jon considered a miracle since neither of them died. Cheney doesn't bother with the false sincerity given by Rumsfeld, he goes straight to saying that he's never been wrong and would still go into Iraq if given the chance to do it again. Jon considers Cheney to be a "glass-half-fuller" who doesn't merely ignore reality, but embraces the positive side of every terrible conflict in the world. He then admits that politics is all about getting 50% plus one, effectively taking the United States pass/fail. Jon's favorite moment was during the post-interview analysis, in which King asked Cheney which branch of the government he's actually a part of. Cheney claimed that his paycheck is signed by the senate and is therefore part of the legislative branch. Wolf Blitzer thought this was fascinating and implied that he learned that fact from the interview. But, in actuality, he reported on that very fact in The Situation Room.
• Sub-Primers: Wall Street saw the second largest drop of 2007 and the pundits are scrambling to find something to blame for this loss in the housing market, mostly settling on the sub-primers. Jon is surprised to find that Larry Wilmore is providing insight on sub-prime loans. He says that sub-prime is the "financial n-word" and banks are intentionally marketing high interest loans to black people. He also explains that to get one of these loans, the only thing that people need to do is to fill out a "stated income" form (and using Oprah as collateral). Jon asks why black people continue to take out these dubious loans if they're known to be spurious and of poor quality. Wilmore just laughs, saying that black people aren't being duped. In fact, they're defaulting on the loans purposefully to get back at the companies offering them. They may have their house repossessed, but the market loses a trillion dollars. He calls it "Tit for tizzat."
• Jed Babbin Interview: Jed Babbin, a former Undersecretary of Defense under George H. W. Bush, promotes his book In the Words of Our Enemies, a "Cliff Notes version of evil" which compiles many things said against America by its enemies. His goal for the book was to avoid a war by keeping an eye on dangerous countries, especially Iran. The two share a discourse about Iran and whether or not these "enemies of America" are on the same level of "evil" and if they are simply pandering to a base.
• Toss to Colbert: Stephen Colbert attempts to do a toss in the style of a Homeran epic, but because they're short on time he settles for the beginning of a dirty limerick which is cut off prematurely.
• Moment of Zen: Cheney's conflicting statements from recently and then in 2005 are played against each other.