By NBC News staff
Comedy Central
Jon Stewart closed his week with a big name on “The Daily Show,” using the final two segments to interview former president Bill Clinton.
Clinton was more subdued than he was at the Democratic National Convention, when he energized an audience with his extended defense of President Barack Obama and his criticisms of Republican nominee Mitt Romney and the Republicans. Loud though the “Daily Show” audience is, it’s not like the convention. Plus there were no balloons or confetti. But Clinton obviously remains proud of what he said there, and focused on getting Democrats to the polls.
“I think the American people take this election seriously,” Clinton said. “They know they have to make choices that will affect their lives, and it’s not very helpful if you take up their time and don’t tell them what their choices are, and that’s what I tried to do.”
Clinton noted that Romney has had to tack to the right, whether because of a change in his political philosophy or as a way to get elected. “Part of the problem that he has is that he made all these commitments in the Primary campaign, and they just kept pushing everyone to the right. Every week another candidate came up and it was like Whack-A-Mole, he had to knock them down.”
But now the big problem Romney has, according to Clinton, is his lack of specificity on key details.
“If I come to you and I say we have this terrible national debt, and here’s my opening gambit -- the first thing I’m going to do is raise it by another $5 trillion over a decade by doing another round of tax cuts that mostly benefit the people who benefitted over the past decade even though it didn’t produce jobs. Now we’re in a really deep hole, now let me tell you how I’m gonna get out of it. Well what about the details? See me after the election,” Clinton imitated.
Yeah, when you put it that way, it’s not very convincing.
Before moving on to talk about the Clinton Global Initiative, he closed with a plea to move from ideology to practicality.
“This is a practical country. We have ideals. We have philosophies. But the problem with any ideology is that it gives the answer before you look at the evidence, so you have to mold the evidence to fit the answer you’ve already decided you’ve got to have.”
Elsewhere in late night, the focus stayed on Romney.
David Letterman addressed the candidate's claim that the “Late Show” host doesn’t like him because he has appeared on the “Tonight Show” with Jay Leno. On the contrary, said a peeved Letterman, who insisted that the Republican presidential candidate, and his “little buddy Gilligan” – aka vice presidential nominee Rep. Paul Ryan -- have an open invitation to visit the show anytime.
“The man is delusional,” Letterman said. “If he thinks we hate him … We are not in the hate business. We are here looking to make friends. … Now, Mitt Romney has been on the show many, many times. Let me ask you something, Mitt. If we hated you, why do we keep begging you to be on the show?
“Let me go out on a limb here and say … Mitt Romney or his little buddy, the vice president, who’s the little guy (referring to Paul Ryan) … Gilligan, his little buddy Gilligan … they have an open invitation to be on the show anytime, on short notice. You want to be here tomorrow? Fine. You want to be here Monday? Anytime, I don’t care. Bring in Mitt Romney, bring in Paul Ryan, bring in Mitt and Mrs. Mitt, bring in the kids … bring in everybody. We don’t hate you, Mitt! We don’t hate people!”
Meanwhile, on "Late Night With Jimmy Fallon," Fallon channeled his inner-Romney to give viewers a glimpse at just how hip the Republican presidential candidate might look like if he addressed the Internet directly.
Proving that he's a "cool, down-to-Earth, normal dude person," Fallon's Romney put together a Rom Bomb Video Vlog Blog and smoothed over his recent "slip-up."
"When I said that 47 percent of folks are dependent on government and believe that they're entitled to food, healthcare and housing, I was just joshing! Hahahaha!"
Then, keeping with the cool-cat stuff, Fallon-as-Romney showed off a picture of his grandkids all dressed up in gingham -- which was the perfect moment to show off his "Gingham Style" moves.
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