Ben Stein on Obama's Conv. speech: "75k people at an sports palace, that's something the Fuehrer..

[Purveyor]

Stein on Obama's convention speech: "Seventy-five-thousand people at an outdoor sports palace, well, that's something the Fuehrer would have done"

On the July 23 edition of CNN Headline News' Glenn Beck, guest Ben Stein, while discussing Sen. Barack Obama's plan to deliver his speech accepting the Democratic presidential nomination at Denver's Invesco Field, stated that he did not "like the idea of Senator Obama giving his acceptance speech in front of 75,000 wildly cheering people" because "hat is not the way we do things in political parties in the United States of America." Stein continued: "Seventy-five-thousand people at an outdoor sports palace, well, that's something the Fuehrer would have done. And I think whoever is advising Senator Obama to do this is bringing up all kinds of very unfortunate images from the past."

Host Beck responded that he has "been saying that we're headed towards a Mussolini-style presidency forever. ... I mean it's crazy." Stein then declared, "It's a scary situation. ... But 75,000 people screaming in an outdoor arena, that's just too much. It's just -- it's scarily authoritarian." He continued: "It's like Juan Peron and Evita."

Stein is not the first guest on Glenn Beck to compare Obama to Adolf Hitler. On February 22, National Review Online editor-at-large Jonah Goldberg said: "I think one of the things that is decidedly fascistic, or at least just a bad idea, is looking for silver bullets. You know, when Barack Obama campaigns, he's basically saying, 'I'm a silver bullet. I'm going to solve all your problems just by electing me.' FDR, Hitler, all these guys, they basically said, 'All your problems can be solved.' "

From the July 23 edition of CNN Headline News' Glenn Beck:

STEIN: I want -- I'm glad you brought up this Denver thing. I don't like the idea of Senator Obama giving his acceptance speech in front of 75,000 wildly cheering people. That is not the way we do things in political parties in the United States of America. We have a contained number of people in an arena. Seventy-five-thousand people at an outdoor sports palace, well, that's something the Fuehrer would have done. And I think whoever is advising Senator Obama to do this is bringing up all kinds of very unfortunate images from the past.

BECK: Well, yeah, you know what? I've been -- I've been saying that we're headed towards a Mussolini-style presidency forever.

STEIN: Well, I think --

BECK: I mean it's crazy.

STEIN: It's a scary situation. I mean, I think he has to recognize some bounds on his own ego. I understand politicians are politicians because they have ego deficit problems and they try to cure them by having lots of worship and adulation and adoration. But 75,000 people screaming at an outdoor arena, that's just too much. It's just -- it's scarily authoritarian.

Media Matters: http://mediamatters.org/items/200807240001?f=h_latest

[MrsT]

1. But when Bush draws tens of thousands, it is A OK!

No hypocrisy there! :eyes:

[DarthDem]

12. Heh

FDR, that . . . that . . . great solver of no problems whatsoever. Yep, a real layabout, that one.

These guys are really starting to get desperate. Breaking Ben Stein out of the attic to share his laughable natterings can't demonstrate that any more clearly.

[Initech]

13. Correction:

"But when Bush draws tens of thousands, in fixed town hall sessions where it is carefully monitored who is allowed to sit in on the Q&A part, it is A OK!"

[Sydnie]

74. And then, only after

each one in attendance have signed a loyalty oath!

These two are completely delusional if they think Obama is the one that they should be painting with that brush.

[Pacifist Patriot]

36. Also conveniently ignoring the tens of thousands are protestors.

How many countries does he have to avoid now?

[Junkdrawer]

46. I think it's getting harder and harder for the GOP to rustle up those numbers...

Even the slow learning Fundies are catching on that they're just being used.

[MindMatter]

58. Tell me when he ever drew "thousands"

Those carefully scripted, carefully stage-managed events never have very many people. They manage the camera angles and crowd noise to give an impression over the teevee.

[Vanje]

54. When Bush draws tens of thousands,

of "wildy cheering people" , its in his dreams.

[Faygo Kid]

2. Beck is going too far. He may be the first wingnut to call for Barack's death.

I thought it might be Limbaugh, finally exploding, or maybe even Laura Ingraham. But I think Beck may be the one to do it.

Ben Stein is already there.

[Hissyspit]

3. Hey, Ben. You might want to shut up. You're an idiot.

It doesn't have anything to do with his ego. But then you knew that, didn't you.

[mrreowwr_kittty]

4. Hey Jonah, FDR actually did solve a lot of problems. Numbnuts. nt

[ccharles000]

5. shit stain

[Jim Sagle]

6. Shorter Ben: INOKIYAD (it's not OK if you're a Democrat).

[Siyahamba]

7. Is there anyone at home in this guy's head?

Anyone?

Anyone?

[Marr]

8. "I'm going to solve all your problems just by electing me."

What kind of person would say that?

These people are always saying that government can't, or at the very least shouldn't, help you. Then why should anyone pay taxes, or follow the law, or enlist in the military, or even vote? Am I to assume that McCain's sales pitch is, "elect me because I won't help you at all?".

[checks-n-balances]

10. Didn't Rushbo say, 'Just listen to me & I'll do your thinking for you'?

Sounds at least dictatorial to me, or is it only OK to say that if you're a wingnut gasbag broadcaster?

[kevinmc]

They are Soooooo Jealous of him …

… they wish they had someone that could draw a crowd half that size. The GOP is a bunch of cry babies.

[Tektonik]

9. OH NO OBAMA MIGHT BE FDR

I'm shaking in my boots! :scared:

[checks-n-balances]

11. RWnuts provide a psychiatric field day every time they do this

A classic case of projection, or in some cases, delusion. The propaganda has never been cranked up to this extent in our once-great democracy.

No matter how often this stuff is repeated, it's still shocking to hear it And just listening to these lies and distortions aimed at our dumbed-down masses 24/7 is depressing enough, but the way the media has even been hoodwinked into allowing it, using it, and actually believing these things is destroying truth and life itself.

[Marr]

14. Odd that telelvision personalities like Steing and Beck aren't held to

the same standard as an anonymous internet poster.

Remember when someone contributed a "Bush/Hitler" video to MoveOn's contest, and the entire corporate media was just aghast? I hear prominent right-wingers equate various liberals to Nazis or Hitler very regularly, and it never even raises an eyebrow.

It's doubly strange when you consider that there actually are very strong similarities between the Nazi Party and the Bush-era Republican Party.

[Bob Dobbs]

15. The reich wing are compulsive projectors.

<http://www.heretical.com/sexsci/bpsychol.html>

They are sociopaths in need of institutionalization and heavy medication. (Some say) electroshock therapy has good results for this.

[Joe Bacon]

16. I cant wait for President Obama to WIN BEN STEIN'S MONEY!!!!!!!

:rofl:

[DRex]

19. Seriously, have you guys seen that 'Stein's Money...' show?

Ranks among the all time worst. I have tried to think of a good reason anyone should listen to this imbecile, but I can't, so why don't we all disregard everything that comes out of his asinine mouth.

Untalented in every conceivable way, and a waste of air time, but then, look whose show he appears on.

[jayfish]

22. "Bueller? Bueller?"

And he said he was untalented.

Jay

[ColbertWatcher]

26. The only good thing about that show was Jimmy Kimmel. n/t

[unapatriciated]

75. ........

:spray: :rofl: :rofl:

[Mind_your_head]

17. Ben Stein is a little creep.

Always has been. Always will most likely be.

I've watched him on/off for several years. That's *my* honest take ~ for whatever that's worth (prolly not much).

[Rex]

18. Ben might actually be more of an idiot than Glen. Hard to tell when

combined they have an IQ of 3.

[Starry Messenger]

20. oh for the love of criminy

no words

[KillCapitalism]

21. Who is this Glenn Beck?

I never watch Headline News, so can somebody fill me in?

[cliffordu]

23. Ben Stein needs a nice enema.

[The Stranger]

32. Ben Stein IS an enema.

He appears to have been inserted up Glen Beck and any number of Rightist's assholes.

[cliffordu]

51. ROFL. Nice one!!

:rofl:

[comtec]

24. FYI Asshole.. it was 2 HUNDRED THOUSAND+ people :)

According to the German Reichstags ;)
200,000+ people... *swoon*

[awoke_in_2003]

48. He is referencing

the nomination speech in august at invesco field.

[Cheap_Trick]

25. If Ben was half as smart as he thinks he is...

he'd be twice as smart as he really is.

[Chulanowa]

64. And yet still dumber than a head of lettuce

[Smith_3]

27. Is that attention whore still around?

Ben Stein is like a cockroach. You can ignore them but they won't go away.

[Smith_3]

28. Is that attention whore still around?

Ben Stein is like a cockroach. You can ignore them but they won't go away.

[elehhhhna]

29. DIdn't JFK have a B-day party at Madison Square Garden? Very Hitlerian.

LMAO

[marmar]

30. How low can they sink?

On second thought, I don't even want to know......

[Jim__]

31. John McCain giving speeches before 23 people is true Americanism - n/t

[LynneSin]

33. Bueller, Bueller, Bueller....

That's the highlight of Ben Stein's career

[Pacifist Patriot]

34. Sorry to go so low brow on this one, but...

Fuck him.

[formercia]

35. Ben Stein, GOP court jester.

His job is to say assinine things that the GOP leadership want to say but don't dare.

[AllieB]

37. He made it into Olbermann's Worst Persons last night

The irony of wingnuts labeling a Democrat Hitlerian. Ha.

[SpookyCat]

66. OMG! Your Avatar!

Completely OT...but you have the Paris Metro bunny as your avatar! You freakin' rock! I felt like such an idiot taking a picture of that last trip!

:yourock:

[AllieB]

73. Thanks. I always thought that was the weirdest cartoon.

So I took a photo when I was there in June. :-)

[johnlal]

38. Hold on! Wait!

Maybe this is just some of that super-smart satire I don't understand-- like in the New Yorker Magazine.

[OnionPatch]

39. They're so jealous they can hardly stand it.

They know Obama will fill that statium full with people who want real change. And that change is going to be against the elitist, right-wing who have been the "Mussolinis" of America for some time now.

[onenote]

40. beck and stein suggest JFK was Hitlerian

After all,in 1960, JFK gave his acceptance speech to a crowd of 80,000 at the Los Angeles Coloseum.

http://www.thirteen.org/historyanddocumentary/this-day-in-history-john-f-kennedy-accepts-the-democratic-nomination-july-15

[Blue_Tires]

41. so what is it when Billy Graham or the Pope sellout a stadium?

[tuvor]

42. Didn't bush want to have the 2004 inaugural address at Shea Stadium?

I heard that, or something close to it, on Countdown last night.

[Sheets of Easter]

55. I think it was Yankee Stadium, but same difference.

What a bunch of hypocritical bastards.

[onenote]

61. not inaugural speech; acceptance speech

[spanone]

43. i'd rather stick a barbed poker up my ass than listen to stein

[Liberal In Texas]

44. Another example of repuke projection.

Projection:
11. Psychology.
a. the tendency to ascribe to another person feelings, thoughts, or attitudes present in oneself, or to regard external reality as embodying such feelings, thoughts, etc., in some way.

[Junkdrawer]

45. Ben "Intelligent Design" Stein...

Color me surprised.

[FVZA_Colonel]

72. He pissed his reputation (such as it was) away with that movie.

With this... he's just throwing another shovel of dirt over the grave.

[pink-o]

47. Anyone else notice that Ben Stein looks more like Henry Kissinger every day?

Just sayin'.

And yes I'm Jewish too so please don't flame me!

[awoke_in_2003]

49. ...

[Psyop Samurai]

50. Some of us saw this coming and refused to underestimate it...

Doesn't matter what we think. Doesn't matter how well we recognize the delusional, projecting nature of these television shills.

I don't have a crystal ball to see what the net effect will be, but I know that some people of my parent's generation are a little scared and hesitant of the Obama phenomenon, and do not have access to the kind of information resources we take for granted. They are not bad people, and would like to trust that something new and better is on the horizon, but they are fearful.

The JFK precedent is a saving grace (thanks, onenote), and I believe we should spread awareness of it to help inoculate people against vacuous fear mongers.

[graywarrior]

52. Ben whines like Lieberman

I can't tolerate his voice. Plus, he's an idiot.

[Vanje]

53. "75,000 wildly cheering people" is the phrase of the day

Clearly Stein and Beck got the memo.

"75,000 wildly cheering people", is clearly the phrase of the day. Stein and Beck toss the phrase around 4 times. Do you suppose someone from the American Enterprise Institute pays them 100 bucks for each utterance?

"Unfortunate images from the past" is repeated twice.

"scary" or "scarily" is repeated three times.

"I mean, its crazy!", Beck twice ejaculates.

[AngryOldDem]

56. Every time Stein makes it on the news I ask why he is relevant.

Why the fuck does anyone care what he says or thinks?

And I'm sure that had the crowds been cheering McCain, it would have been a complete and total affirmation of support, the proof that McCain is indeed a world leader who offers the promise of better days to come. :puke:

I also have a problem with playing the Hitler card against Obama, but I'll just keep those thoughts to myself.

[treestar]

57. If 75,000 people are willing to come and hear you and they cheer

that's not because you set that up to stroke your ego, it's because they chose to come. Stein talks as if anybody can get that number of people to come and cheer them on!

Moran.

[corkhead]

59. That's it! I am boycotting ClearEyes!!111!1!!!!

what a dumbass

[struggle4progress]

60. Uh, Ben? Our big problems with the Nazis had very little to do with sports arenas. Really.

[NoGOPZone]

62. Ben's just mad because that's more people than went to see "No Intelligence Allowed"

[samsingh]

63. the stupidly and lies coming from the moronic right wing leaves

me speechless and shaking my head.

they are desparate and will lie and cheat on anything. of course, happy people in a crowd must be scary to them as their idiot candidates cannot do this unless every attendee was paid off.

[Mad_Dem_X]

65. The neo-cons are scared to death!

:rofl: I fuckin' love it!

[Monk06]

67. People who promote a fascist regime are not in a positition to accuse others

of authoritarian ambitions.

Stein is a Jew who supports Bush. His
warnings against fascism are worthless
accept as neo con propaganda.

[SpookyCat]

68. I worry a little about the ratcheting up of the rhetoric.

These people are basically cornered rabid animals, and such creatures are dangerous.

I try not to dwell on it too much, but it does worry me.

I expressed these concerns to my BIL and he said, "oh, our army won't turn its guns against its own people..." but my response was, "maybe not, but Blackwater would, and has..."

I will be very happy to be wrong.

[Maestro]

69. Oh Ben....

And Glenn, here is what I want you to do because you so dumb and ignorant!

[iamthebandfanman]

70. Gees, he compares everything with the nazi's!

i think someones a lil obsessed.


ben stein is a dipshit, and proves it everytime he speaks now.

he should go back to acting...
hes good at that
especially when he only has one line...

bueller.... bueller...

but he did make me laugh when he suggested that SCIENCE killed all the jewish people in WW2. that they were killed for science.

sure, id imagine the nazis did do experiements with jewish people... but the goal was death regardless of what was learned... so if the intention is to exterminate, it has nothing to do with science. they would have been murdered regardless.

[hatrack]

71. OK, then if 75,000 = Hitler, then does 37,500 = Mussolini? How aboubt 10,000 = Franco?

Is crowd size the primary criterion? If there are others, pray tell, oh phony-documentary-purveyor and has-been movie hack Ben Stein, what might they be?

And would you need sort of a separate "Cult Of Personality" sliding scale for comparisons with leftist leaders? 150,000 in the crowd=Stalin? 350,000 = Mao? Or would the audience have to be able to march past a given point forever for that comparison to take root?

Poor, poor put-upon Ben Stein - it must be hard to be white, rich and Republican in America these days!!

[BreweryYardRat]

76. Jesus, how low can Ben Stein go?

He's Jewish. I'm sure he had relatives butchered by the Nazis. And he compares Obama to Adolf motherfucking Hitler?