David Letterman Finally Exposes the Truth About Tea Partiers


His Excellent Interview with Pam Stout, President of Sandpoint, Idaho Tea Party

This is not an April Fools’ Day joke either. David Letterman had Pam Stout, the Sandpoint, Idaho Tea Party President on his show the other night. The result?

A very fair and enlightening interview, showing the real face of the Tea Party to many viewers who may have only been believing the lamestream media spin (Racists! Cuckoo pants! Violent Haters!)

From Allahpundit at Hot Air (emphasis mine):

No joke; this is a near-jawdropper. Even an apolitical mag like Entertainment Weekly calls it “quietly remarkable.” I don’t know what Letterman had in mind by booking her. Maybe he thought he was going to lure her into some sort of gotcha that would prove tea partiers are freaks, or maybe he was just interested in engaging someone from the other side’s grassroots — although he’s never done that before, to my knowledge. Whatever the reason, this ends up being one of the most efficient (if possibly inadvertent) debunkings of tea-party craziness to ever hit big media.

Yup. Whatever the motives, the end result is marvelous. She could be your Mom, your Grandma, your neighbor down the road. Sure takes the wind out of the racist, crazy, angry, spitting and epithet hurling narrative, doesn’t it?

Video after the jump.

She’s everything I tried to describe about the movement months ago, after the 9/12 rally:

This was NOT a protest by professional ideologues. It wasn’t attended by some “fringe” element. It wasn’t astroturfed. You simply don’t get it… this wasn’t a convention of wing-nutty partisans who live to drum and dance on weekends. These were concerned people who’ve never had an interest in protests before. It was attended by Americans, Americans who were angry and tired, Americans who were saying No More, and Americans who were taught to respect The Press but saw them blatantly carrying the water for the Left, not only by covering-up stories that didn’t fit a certain narrative, but by outright propagandizing.  These were Americans who don’t have the time to endlessly discuss policy points, they react. These were Americans with guts and spines, which have always, throughout history, achieved FAR more than fancy rhetoric.  These were Americans who don’t ask for hand-outs, who don’t posture, but rather simply take action and do what needs to be done. These were charitable people who do charitable things resulting in far more good than big government’s failed programs. Their churches and their community centers press on despite the people who snicker at them for their beliefs. These were Americans who employ people, enriching them in ways the Government never could. These good people beat themselves up every time they are forced to lay someone off due to the incessant interference and constant screw-ups by the Government, the very same Government that is now smugly dismissing them, outright ridiculing and mocking them.

You can’t effectively keep using slurs against people who know who they truly are. You can’t “isolate and identify” someone when you have to include a million of his friends.  It’s also because they don’t understand us at all.  People are fed-up and not just for themselves. Go to town halls or tea parties and see a stay at home Mom with a toddler at her hip, or an elegant older gentleman, gussied up in suit and hat because that’s just what you do when attending a public event, and try not to get a lump in your throat and a resolve in your heart when you hear them being called racists, a mob, terrorists, etc. And it’s in that moment that you realize that you are not on the outside looking in. You are on the inside, in complete solidarity with them, looking out. Collectively we say, “Uh-uh.” We are good people who just want to live our lives as best as we can, who work hard to make the best lives for our families. We are tired of being insulted and sneered at and stepped on and of having our lives controlled by people who have zero interest in OUR actual well-being, who know nothing of our lives and sit in their Ivory Towers disdainfully looking down on their perceived lessers,  talking folksily about “kitchen table issues” yet do nothing to actually help their kitchen tables be fruitful.

That is who Pam Stout is and what she represents. And this interview finally makes that clear to anyone who was watching.

(cross-posted at my blog)


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30 Comments Leave a comment

Pam did a good job.

zachv (Diary) Thursday, April 1st at 2:01PM EST (link)

Though, I did find there were some iffy moments where Letterman sarcastically spat out some cringe-worthy talking points that I would have liked to have rebutted.

That´s what happens...

mayrfortuna (Diary) Thursday, April 1st at 6:21PM EST (link)

When you face the thruth.
This guy Letterman, is a leftist wacko, but he could not paint the screen with that Lady. Why is that?
Every wacko in media must take care of his own image. He would put it down (the image) if he attacked a Lady like that. That Lady is respectable, and nobody can state otherwise, noty even David Letterman.
The left can attack (and they do, in the most despicable manner) a Rush Limbaugh, Glen Beck, Sean Hannity Mark Levin…
They are “fair game”. But that Lady is a grandma, a mother, a citizen… You can not diminish that kind of personality and for you that think she did not counterpoint him, take some time and see it again.

Mayr Fortuna, a Brazilian From Brazil – also accompaigning your fight against the comms.

 
 

Super stuff, thanks.

Vassar Bushmills (Diary) Thursday, April 1st at 2:07PM EST (link)

VB

 

What a great interview!

alarm1201 Thursday, April 1st at 2:11PM EST (link)

I found my self loving her from the opening and almost liking Letterman by the time it was over.

"People criticize what they fear,

Flagstaff (Diary) Monday, April 5th at 7:11PM EST (link)

and ignorance is largely the source of that fear.”–David Letterman

So I take it that Letterman’s ignorance is the source of his criticism and therefore fear of Glenn Beck.

Notice the attempt to tar the lady by associating her with Birthers and Beck? She handled him with expertise–magnificent.

“The press is so powerful in its image-making role that it can make a criminal look like he’s the victim and make the victim look like he’s the criminal. If you aren’t careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed and loving the people who are doing the oppressing.”– Malcolm X, Audubon Ballroom, December 13, 1964

 

I will give you another great Letterman moment

Doc Holliday (Diary) Monday, April 5th at 7:38PM EST (link)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xut56q77GK0

Too bad his strong moments are exceedingly rare, like once a decade rare.

Molon Labe!

 
 

Cudos to Letterman, frankly

NotSoBlueStater (Diary) Thursday, April 1st at 2:13PM EST (link)

What a great interview. Sure he made his views known, but there was nothing outrageous. Reasonable people believe the more leftish things he said.

Every school kid in America (and everyone at HuffPo, for that matter) should watch that.

-
The Conservative creed has never offered a life of ease without effort. Democracy is not for such people. Self-government is for those men and women who have learned to govern themselves. – Margaret Thatcher

 

Thanks for sharing this...

Gigi Thursday, April 1st at 2:23PM EST (link)

I haven’t watched Letterman in years because every time I did, my blood pressure would sky rocket. He has been so typically so over the top with the lefty stuff over the past decade. I don’t think he thought this interview would go the way it did. Well done, Pam!

“The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public’s money.”
- Alexis de Tocqueville

 

Pam, great job.

deevee Thursday, April 1st at 2:34PM EST (link)

Tea Party participants are every day hard working individual Americans who see the government over stepping Constitutional rights.

 

stay tuned and on alert

spepper Thursday, April 1st at 2:45PM EST (link)

stay tuned and on alert– although it did appear that Letterman was giving the nice lady fair treatment, just keep in mind that he’s done this before– invite people on that he fundamentally disagrees with (remember he had Rush on the Late Show as well) then subsequently rip into either them personally or politically– I will NEVER forgive Letterman for his personal attacks via his failed attempts at monologue humor on Sarah Palin and family, until he sincerely apologizes for it, which to me has always meant, aplogize in person–

 

The lamp beside the golden door ...

Sissy_Willis Thursday, April 1st at 2:49PM EST (link)

Talk about GIRL POWER! You and Pam Stout form a multitude! Thanks for speaking so eloquently for all of us wretched refuse yearning to breathe free.

Sissy Willis

 

Even a broken squirel finds a nut twice a day

NickDeringer (Diary) Thursday, April 1st at 3:24PM EST (link)

Not sure what Letterman has up his greasy little sleeve, but we’ll take our victories where we can get them.

 

I turned over to Letterman to avoid Joy Behar on Leno,

Bill Thursday, April 1st at 4:01PM EST (link)

and I was surprised to see Pam there. Letterman did get in his digs at the Tea Partiers and I told my wife when it was over that he was trying to trap Pam or get her riled up to have her say something outrageous. She did a great job in her defense and you could tell she was nervous. It was a great representation for all of us who are just fed up with the current politicians. BRAVO!

Thank God! November 3, 2010. U.S. House, GOP 290, DEM 145; U.S. Senate, GOP 70, DEM 28, IND 2. Keep on praying!

 

I won't watch Letterman for his idjit "presidential speeches"

renny (Diary) Thursday, April 1st at 4:06PM EST (link)

into neatly every show for two years that attacked Bush ceaselessly. He was show JFK’s inaugural, even Reagan at the Berlin Wall, then someone in costume giving the “Gettysburg Address,” and feature Bush at some open event where he um’ed in answering an unplanned or unscripted question and Letterman would have them loop the “um” for two or three minutes. He did this routine repeatedly, and I wrote him repeatedly, and finally I just stopped watching.

As to this mention even by little o of the tea parties having “some legitimate” concerns, it is just a slight dawning on the left that attacking over 50% of the electorate as Nazis and racists was prob. not a good political move. It doesn’t mean they won’t oppose any disagreement as if it were a terrorist threat. After all, that’s why they just arrested some “Christian militia” goofs in MI. They are sending a message that if you are on the right, you are suspect.

But I imagine it is much like o’s acknowledgement that we are going to need oil, natural gas and coal for prob. another century and “opening” some offshore drilling, which is not really anything new or any change in his outlawing Bush’ true new regs. on continental shelf use. Noting of substance, but just a liturgy of what is already in the pipeline (pun) as o locks up more land and stifles most real energy development.

If he listened to himself, he would be on the right track. He says we will need fossil fuels for a long time and have abundant resources ourselves, and then he keeps denies the West Coast and most of AL for oil development, like throwing a bone to developers by offering VA, where as far as I know, few commodities exist.

NJ, on the other hand, really has oil and nat. off our coast, have the refineries and pipelines in place, have nat. gas storage that most states do not have, need the jobs and industry (having lost 240,000 since 2007, but immediately, our nitwit pols. and Cong. reps. pledged never to allow drilling, as if technology and the environment were mutually exclusive and if we were still stuck in 1969 in CA.

 

TY for posting.

grandma Thursday, April 1st at 4:39PM EST (link)

Haven’t watched Letterman for years. Pam did a superb job, especially when he tried to trap her into the birther thing.

 

Pam Stout: precinct strategy hero!

ColdWarrior (Diary) Thursday, April 1st at 4:41PM EST (link)

Did you see how easy it was to explain the precinct strategy for taking the Republican Party back to its roots (as set forth in its platform)? Just took Pam a couple of sentences to explain the strategy.

Bravo!

Now, if we could only get some conservative Republican incumbents to say the same thing!

Thank you.
ColdWarrior
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When I watched it yesterday, I thought you'd

redneck_hippie (Diary) Thursday, April 1st at 8:49PM EST (link)

like it.

She’s one smart cookie. How did you hypnotize Dave into having her on?!!


Activists Taking Action: Unified Patriots

 
 

she really nailed it

rbc Thursday, April 1st at 4:51PM EST (link)

Great job, Pam!

 

"People criticize what they fear, and ignorance is largely the source of the fear." Letterman

techsan (Diary) Thursday, April 1st at 5:10PM EST (link)

So…will Letterman make the leap between two grains of sand and draw any conclusions at all about a ruling Democrat party who has done nothing but criticize the TEA Party movement? I won’t hold my breath.

In the end, all we have on our side of the debate are facts and history.

 

C'mon folks.

rsjt Thursday, April 1st at 5:41PM EST (link)

The left has fantasies of another Perot split of the vote. I’m glad she got her message out but don’t fall for Letterman’s latest charade.

The left wants a three person race. (It is the ONLY legitimate way Barry can win). So do some RINOs and even a television commentator or two who act like they are on your side. Beware. Be very very careful!

 

Oh why didn't he call her a teabagger?

svenhoek Thursday, April 1st at 6:47PM EST (link)

They never call us that to our faces on camera.

Any fool can criticize, condemn and complain and most fools do.
-Benjamin Franklin

 

Despite Letterman's leftward leanings,

romeg Thursday, April 1st at 9:35PM EST (link)

When he does one of the interviews, he is one of the best interviewers in all of media. It is probably the only thing he takes seriously.

“Of all tyrannies a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victim may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated, but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.” – C. S. Lewis

 

Stunning to see some fairness

rfpzzzzz Friday, April 2nd at 11:08PM EST (link)

It is amazing to see someone from “that media” actually treat Tea Partiers with some modicum of fairness. I cannot remember when I have seen it last. Even though he did come at her with a bit of the far left attitude he was polite and respectful and she was wonderful.
I wonder if his ratings increase when Conan was doing the Tonight Show got him a bit arrogant and then when the ratings began to tank when Leno took back over as well as the fact that Sarah did NBC but not him got him some religion. Sarah consciously did NBC to hurt his ratings , I am sure and I bet he feared Leno becoming the go to place for the right . Whatever the motivation, it is nice to see a little respect and decency.

 

Divide and conquer is the end game

shoqandawe Sunday, April 4th at 12:42AM EST (link)

Libs want a c conservative third party to split the vote. Expect more soft interviews.

How many times did he ask about the the Tea Party “candidate” and an enigmatic leader needing to emerge.

Hi Shoq

speciallist (Diary) Sunday, April 4th at 1:35AM EST (link)

welcome to Redstate…….see ya around

(I give it less than a week)

Not the same guy (nt)

Neil Stevens (Diary) Sunday, April 4th at 3:44PM EST (link)

RS contributing editor, technical administrator, and “a hardy variety of crabgrass.”
Read the RedState Posting Rules

Unlikely Voter: Poll Analysis, Election Projection.

“I rejoice that America has resisted.” – William Pitt, the Elder

 
 

Just curious "Shoq"

Erick Brockway (Diary) Sunday, April 4th at 12:58PM EST (link)

Why did you take the name of a leftist Twitterer?

That "Shoq" is an absolutely insignificant nobody

Neil Stevens (Diary) Sunday, April 4th at 3:45PM EST (link)

I wouldn’t assume every other ‘Shoq’ knows about him. :-)

RS contributing editor, technical administrator, and “a hardy variety of crabgrass.”
Read the RedState Posting Rules

Unlikely Voter: Poll Analysis, Election Projection.

“I rejoice that America has resisted.” – William Pitt, the Elder

 
 
 

If she weren't a naturalized citizen, I'd wish she'd

Brian Hibbert (Diary) Sunday, April 4th at 7:44AM EST (link)

nominate herself for US President. Sounds like she’s got more sense than our current president.

Great interview. Thank’s for posting this Lori.

I was also thrilled that she mentioned the Precinct Project and replacing the current GOP leadership rather than a third party. I think she said something like “everybody loses” when third parties split the vote.

Candidate for Trustee of Illinois Central College
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Letterman - Alinsky Media posterboy

factapple (Diary) Sunday, April 11th at 4:36PM EST (link)

The Alinsjy media is desperately trying to publically mock the Tea Party and it is only working with the youngest least informed among us, kids don’t know much about politics, but they do know they don’t want to be mocked pubically – it is the most effective weapon the left uses. Thanks for the post