We are now three weeks to E-Day. A good many Americans wish it could be over. It as been an ugly, contentious campaign. The two top candidates are widely disliked, although only one of them is competent enough to be president. There are two other choices but are they any better? John Oliver, host of HBO’s “Last Week Tonight,” dissects candidates and the platforms of the Green Party’s Jill Stein, and the Libertarian Party’a Gary Johnson. Needless to say he didn’t find anything qualifying either to be president.
“In terms of how fundamentally flawed that is on every level, it’s basically akin to saying ‘I’ll make us energy independent by ordering the Post Office to invade Canada,'” Oliver said. “No, Jill. That’s impractical, it’s a terrible idea, and you don’t seem to understand anything about it.” Throughout her campaign, Stein has wavered on issues like Brexit and mandatory vaccinations, and exposed herself as a 9/11 truther. (Unmentioned by Oliver: Stein’s unproven theory that WiFi is harmful to children.)
“Like Jill Stein, Johnson is prone to overly simple solutions that could have disastrous consequences,” Oliver said about the Libertarian candidate’s blasé promise to eliminate the Department of Education, Department of Commerce and Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Oliver also mocked Johnson’s climate change stance that the sun will one day “grow and encompass the Earth.” “That’s your plan? Don’t worry, we’ll all be dead eventually anyway,” Oliver said. “Look, I would love for there to be a perfect third party candidate, I even understand the argument that a third party candidate can put a new issue or a new solution on the table, but it is hard to make a case that is what’s happening here. There is no perfect candidate in this race. When people say, you don’t have to choose the lesser of two evils, they are right, because you have to choose the lesser of four.”