I wasn’t entirely impressed w/ Evo’s performance on The Daily Show. From a PR point of view, he did well. He stuck to his talking points, he remained diplomatic, he was calm & eloquent. But it wasn’t funny.
You can read more positive reviews at Gringo Tambo, MABB, and The Latin Americanist (which includes video). The folks at Backyard Briefing (also provide video link) seem to agree w/ me.
Evo’s charismatic appeal (and he is known to have a good sense of humor) just didn’t come through. Perhaps it was the translation, which made it difficult for him to establish a clear rapport w/ Jon Stewart. Perhaps it was the softball questions, which were meant to help establish a rapport, but didn’t. In the end, the interview came off flat. It wasn’t as entertaining as the other head of state visit: Pakistan’s Pervez Musharraf (26 September 2006).
Evo’s performance did make him seem reasonable, calm, and appealing to a broad constituency of moderate liberals. In that sense, his performance was a rousing success—particularly when contrasted to last year’s Chávez “devil & sulfur” theatrics at the UN or this week’s Ahmadinejad fiasco at Columbia University. And that is, of course, the primary concern—from a political point of view.
One weakness, of course, is that he came across as too mild-mannered. Especially when compared to his highly articulate—and antagonistic—vice president (Alvaro García Linera), who also recently did a tour across the US (he gave a keynote address at the LASA conference). Perhaps Evo is the “conscience” of Bolivian government, while Alvaro is the “brain” (as some rumors suggest). I believe Evo, who lived most of his political life w/o Alvaro (a Johnny-come-lately to MAS), has proven himself to be an astute political figure. But there is the danger that American audiences may come to see Evo as less “important” than Alvaro.
Still, Evo did seem to have a successful visit to the US. And he showed a quiet, diplomatic dignity in his interview w/ Stewart. But. As a Daily Show fan—and from a comedy perspective—it just wasn’t very entertaining.
There is no danger regarding the U.S. audience, as it has no idea who the VP is...
Evo was also interviewed on Democracy Now, a leftist radio show. (Much longer than The Daily Show interview, but not reaching nearly the audience.) Transcript in English at http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/09/26/1442242
Greg:
The "American audience" I had in mind was more "American policy makers" (as opposed to other country's policy makers).
Any idea who the translator was? I'd never seen him before. And c'mon, you didn't find it even just a *little bit* entertaining? I liked the segment, personally.
Newley:
Honestly? It wasn't very entertaining, to me at least. I was disappointed that Jon Stewart sort of pandered to Evo. I can appreciate that he might respect or like him, and there's certainly much to like in a feel-good, PR sort of way (Evo's been compared to Nelson Mandela, etc). But his softball questions almost seemed insulting, as if he coddled Evo too much. On other occasions, he's joked w/ Desmond Tutu, and even Musharraf. I don't mean that he had to "attack" Evo, but merely treat him like any other guest, not like a special, extra-sensitive case.
But that was probably a factor of the translator, which Stewart sort of acknowledged the next night.
In the grand scheme of things, the Evo interview wasn't memorable. Sure, people will (perhaps) remember that Evo was on the show. But will they remember anything he said? And did he say anything of actual "substance"? The "let's all get along and bring peace to the world" cliche is rather thin at this point. Any audience will nod & agree. But does it "mean" anything?
I think people will remember Evo. In my opinion, he came out very well from that interview. Partly due to the admiration Stewart showed towards Evo and partly to the soft questions and partly to the translation.
I could imagine there were many Americans who sympathized with him. An indication were the cheers he got repeatedly. Most of those, I am afraid, are the ones who do not really know what is going on in Bolivia.