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.
