The End of (the Rally to Restore) Sanity

There is a lot going on today: Widening international investigation into the bombs from Yemen; Game 3 of the World Series; UCLA v. Arizona football (what?). But probably the biggest headliner was Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert’s Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear.

The rally just wrapped up with this remark from Mr. Influential, via The Caucus blog:

“What exactly was this?” Mr. Stewart asks. “This was not a rally to ridicule people of faith. Or people of activism or to look down our noses at the heartland, or passionate argument or to suggest that times are not difficult and that we have nothing to fear. They are and we do. But we live now in hard times, not end times. And we can have animus and not be enemies.”

“Not being able to be able to distinguish between real racists and Tea Partiers, or real bigots and Juan Williams or Rick Sanchez is an insult, not only to those people but to the racists themselves, who have put in the exhausting effort it takes to hate.”

“The press is our immune system,” Mr. Stewart says. “If it overreacts to everything, we actually get sicker. And perhaps eczema. And yet, with that being said, I feel good. Strangely, calmly good.”

Here’s from from CNN. Still looking for a video. In the meantime, here is some context on Tea Partiers and Juan Williams and Rick Sanchez.