BROWN: We're joined by Aaron McGruder. His cartoon,
"The Boondocks," is syndicated most days
in over 300 newspapers, but sometimes a few less,
depending on the material. Good to see you.
MCGRUDER: Good to see you.
BROWN: All right. Two sentences: who won the debate? You're going to say this.
MCGRUDER: Kerry. Bush got his ass whooped. It was a very clear victory.
You know, what bothers me about shows like this,
and all the news shows, after Bush talks
I hear all these smart people completely ignoring
the elephant in the room.
And the elephant in the room, which nobody wants
to say, is that Bush is not a smart man.
He can't articulate well. He doesn't speak in
complete sentences. And everyone just ignores it,
like that's OK. But he's really dumb.
BROWN: OK. That's a different thing. Let's say
he is not articulate. And I think they would concede
he's not the most articulate guy on the planet.
It doesn't mean he doesn't have convictions. It doesn't mean
he believes in some things. It doesn't necessarily
mean he's wrong. It just means he can't express himself.
MCGRUDER: But beliefs don't mean anything if you're
stupid. And not only that, but he -- it's almost as
though he's talking to the dumbest segment of
society, whereas Kerry...
BROWN: Aaron, don't you think that's an incredibly arrogant way to look at the world?
MCGRUDER: It's -- you know, it's real, you know?
It's just that nobody is saying the obvious,
which is the man is not smart and he's the president.
Everybody knows it, but nobody is saying it.
BROWN: What does that say, then, about the 49
percent of the country that not only believes
he is smart enough to run the country now but
should be the guy to run the country for the next four years?
MCGRUDER: I think they have been woefully misled.
Americans have a natural inclination, like all people
around the world, to believe that their government
is not corrupt, that the people are fair and smart and they're not lying
to them.
And history doesn't prove that out. And current
events doesn't prove that out. The American people have been lied to,
and it's at the point now where I think that
that percentage of people simply are not interested in the truth. They
don't want
to go down the road the thought that the president,
one, is not intelligent; and two, the people behind the president who are
intelligent are deliberately lying and misleading
the American people constantly.
BROWN: Do you believe that a Kerry presidency would be more honest, or is this a corruption, in your view, of the entire establishment?
MCGRUDER: ...to say the establishment is oversimplified.
I think that the institution of journalism has failed in its responsibility
to hold the government accountable. The government's
doing what it's supposed to do when left unchecked.
I do think Kerry would be better than Bush. I
think he would be more honest. I think he would be more intelligent.
But that's -- everybody knows that already. That's
not really in anyone's debate. It's just people have picked a side.
It's the kind of weird God people in the middle
of America, the people that live on the coasts fly over.
We don't talk to those people. We don't understand
those people, and they don't understand us.
But nobody just says the obvious, that their
president can't articulate himself and is dumb. And it drives me nuts.
BROWN: I got all that.
MCGRUDER: There you go.
BROWN: Nice to meet you.
MCGRUDER: It is a pleasure. Thank you for having me on.
BROWN: Come back, too.
MCGRUDER: If you let me.
BROWN: I will. We're equal opportunity around here.
MCGRUDER: There you go.
BROWN: In every respect. Thank you.