Political musings

Part of being in another country in a vastly different part of the world is being disconnected from the political environment and discourse of my own culture. I customize my google desktop so that I have Reuters, BBC, CBC, SBS and a couple of left wing blogs (and their current stories) on my homepage. I am exposed to a tremendous amount of news through these links. However, one of my favorite places to get my news is still the Daily Show and Colbert Report. Obviously, I don't get the Comedy Network here in Korea, but I download both shows every day.
Last week, I watched Jon Stewart interview Bill Clinton, and today, I watched him interview Pervez Musharaff. Both interviews were great, especially the interview with Musharaff. Stewart asked him about his thought process post 9/11, when he was told by Colin Powell (the next day) that American troops would be going into Afganistan through Pakistan, whether they cooperated or not. He gave an honest answer about how he arrived at his decision, including how he considered if Pakistan could successfully resist American forces. I wondered at the time if any other interviewer in America could have let the interview reach that point without interjecting with an American ideological statement.
The interview concluded with a "Seat of Heat" question from Stewert; "If George W. Bush and Osama Bin Ladin were both running in an election in Pakistan, who would win?" Musharaff replied, "they would both loose miserably."
I know that many would not consider Pakistan a fully democratic country. I also know that it is guilty of human rights violations, and its treatment of women is poor. However, all of these facts simply increase the irony. The irony that Pakistan's president is more capable of an honest interview on American television than "the leader of the free world."