In the second hour, The Lionel Show is thrilled to welcome back Will Durst, incisive political comedian and bipartisan thorn in the side of American politicians. Will’s most recent book is The All-American Sport of Bipartisan Bashing: Common Sense Rantings From a Raging Moderate. You know how Lionel loves common sense, critical thinking, and the eschewing of ideological labels, so look forward to a level-headed and even-keeled discussion of today’s political landscape. Also: jokes. On today’s Lionel Show!!!

FROM THE ENDLESS CAMPAIGN

Usually when I read about a legal dispute or lawsuit in the news, it’s easy for me to decide which party most deserves “dumbass” status. In this controversy regarding provocative anti-Obama T-shirts, however, it is well nigh impossible to decide which party is more offensively stupid. Putting aside the legal issue at hand (surely the designer’s right to make these T-shirts is protected, and the woman in question has no case on which to blame him for her assault), it is disturbing how vacuously ignorant both parties in this case are. The T-shirt purchaser clearly chose some empty nod to “fashion” or “cool” over good taste or consideration, and the designer himself is so wildly ignorant in his historical connections (Obama’s like Hitler?) that he’s clearly not a cunning provocateur but rather a raging moron pushing slogans reminiscent of grafitti on the bathroom walls of a loony bin.

Today’s Poll: which party in the case described above is the bigger Dumbass? Best answer wins a (symbolic) trip to the Air America Prize Closet, which in reality has been locked for the past three years.

This Muslim thing just doesn’t seem to be going away. Where did this (totally fallacious) rumor come from? How are some in the American public able to simultaneously castigate Obama for being a Muslim and for being involved with the decidedly Christian Reverend Wright? What is this insane perception schizophrenia, and what does it say about us as a country? Let’s have some smart people call today and talk about this, shall we?

Hoping to silence critics who find him either soft or perhaps just ambiguous on foreign policy, Senator Barack Obama is leaving next week for a whirlwind tour of diplomatic tooth-flashing. Talk about chutzpah – this is the kind of trip usually reserved for a newly elected President, not for a candidate still embroiled in a contentious (albeit presently sunny-looking) election. So does this represent a novel, bold new direction in Presidential politics, or an over-confident mistake on the part of Mr. Obama? One thing is for sure: we’ll hear about every gosh-darned second of what goes on over there.

Meanwhile, McCain will be sticking to these United States, talking about the economy (which he admittedly doesn’t know much about). Expect to hear a lot of this: “Obama will raise your taxes. Your taxes will be raised by Obama. A raise in taxes will occur, with Obama as the source of said tax raise”. We get it, John. But speaking of what you hear from McCain, some have noticed that he’s just not getting as much coverage in general as his opponent. Why do we think that is? Is it Obama’s accepted status as The New Thing in American politics? If so, lets hope he fares better than New Coke did.

IN THE MELANGE

Sometimes it’s so hard to apologize. But seriously, forks…