AVC: What do you see as the primary differences between the philosophies of Real Time and Politically Incorrect?
BM: Politically Incorrect, we cast a much wider net for guests, first of all. Being on every night with four guests, that was 20 guests a week, vs. three for Real Time. That's a big difference. Politically Incorrect wasn't pretending to be as deep as Real Time. We would never on Politically Incorrect have a panel of Christopher Hitchens, Max Cleland, and Vali Nasr. We would have one of those people, and then probably three celebrities of one sort or another. And that was, we hoped, the charm of the show: that it was a mix-and-match of people of various ideologies and intellectual levels. Sometimes that was charming, and sometimes it wasn't. As far as the guests go, that's the main difference. As far as my political philosophy, I don't think it's changed radically. One reason I'm glad I'm a talk-show host and not a politician is that I'm allowed to change my mind and evolve and grow as I learn something. As opposed to the philosophy of our present administration, which is "We never learn, because we're always right from the beginning. We're resolute, in that even suggesting a whiff of change means you're cutting and running and flipping and flopping." And that's ridiculous.
AVC: With that in mind, would it actually help or change anything if Bush were impeached? Would Dick Cheney make a better president in any way?
BM: Well, I'm sure thousands of times before I have made the observation that he's probably running the show to begin with. So I don't know if it would change anything. I don't know if it would make things worse. But that's another great reason why Bush is probably safe from impeachment, is because we'd probably go from the frying pan into the fire. Not that it wouldn't make that much of a difference. I think Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld, they know what's really up. They know why they really went into Iraq. Bush is just the empty suit who's stupid enough to believe their nonsense about spreading freedom.
AVC: You've described yourself as a libertarian, but you have beliefs on both sides of the Democrat/Republican divide, and a comedian's distaste for everyone in power. So is there a single person out there now whom you could wholeheartedly back as a 2008 presidential candidate?
BM: I don't know yet, because I haven't seen what the candidates are saying yet. There are some people who I think have potential. I think John Edwards, Joe Biden, Al Gore, even John Kerry. They're all capable, bright people. What the Democrats have lacked is not intelligence, it's will. It's the political will to say things which might ruffle a few feathers at first, which might not be so popular. If somebody would run under the slogan, "I'd rather be right than president," great. I'd vote for that person.
AVC: If you were elected president tomorrow, what would your first three initiatives be?
BM: [Laughs.] That's insane. Me elected President. Well, the first thing I would do would be to address the environment. The second thing would be to address homeland security. My thinking is, government is really there to do the things that people absolutely can't do for themselves. And that's mostly involved with the things that might kill you. And what might kill me? The environment and terrorism. And I think in both cases, we have very little defense in this country. So, I would immediately try to get the ports protected. The chemical plants, the airlines. I would move on these areas, which have become really just pork-barrel projects in a business-as-usual Congress. And then make drastic steps toward reversing or arresting the global-warming problem. Al Gore's movie [An Inconvenient Truth] was real nice, but he didn't suggest anything at the end. He didn't say, "This is a horrible problem that's reaching a tipping point, so what we really need is a $2 gasoline tax." He didn't do any of that. So what good is it? Everyone who saw the movie is already on the page. Even Bush at this point has admitted, "Yes, there probably is global warming, and probably it's caused by human beings." So it's a matter of then saying, "Yeah, but what are we doing about it?"
AVC: So the environment and security. Is there a third thing?
BM: The debt. That's another iceberg we're heading toward. I would try doing something about this enormous debt that we've incurred by giving away money to all of George Bush's rich friends.
AVC: Do you see any practical way to stop the government from legislating morality?
BM: Elect people who promise that they won't. The only reason we got into this is because people like George Bush are very adept at inspiring their base of Christian voters to elect them into office. And as I say, the majority of the country doesn't feel that way. It's just the majority of the people who are inspired to get off their asses and go into the voting booth. I don't think a lot of these Christian people who voted for George Bush—I've heard them interviewed, and sometimes they don't even think very highly of many of the policies of his administration, but they like him because he's a Christian. They feel like he's one of them.
AVC: From Politically Incorrect on, you've been known for speaking your mind and courting controversy, but as political debate gets progressively more vitriolic, it's difficult to say something strong enough to stand out from the crowd. Do you feel any pressure to become more outrageous?
BM: Oh God, no. [Laughs.] More outrageous. I never, ever in my life tried to be outrageous. I've only ever tried to say what was truly on my mind and not pull punches about it. The fact that struck people as outrageous is just because there's a lot of people in this country who look at the world through a lens that I don't find to be particularly realistic.
AVC: You've recently been taken to task for saying religion is a neurological disorder—
BM: I've always talked about religion that way. Always. From the beginning. I hate religion. But I couldn't possibly talk about it more than I do without making people go, "Bill, you've got to get off religion a little. It comes up in almost every show. You have to keep some sense of balance, so the people who are watching this show every week don't go 'Oh, this guy, he's doing a Lenny Bruce now. He's obsessed with this issue. Everything comes down to this.'" And believe me, I could get into religion on every show, no matter what we're discussing, because religion really is in almost every issue. But I try to keep an eye out for the viewer. People know where I stand on religion. [Laughs.] I don't think that I have to worry that I've been ambiguous.
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