>> december 8th, 2011. from comedy central's world news headquarters in new york, this is the daily show with jon stewart. (cheers and applause) >> jon: welcome to the daily show, my name is jon stewart. we have a good guest, republican strategist ed gillespie will be joining us, i will ask him about the

gop republican field and i will sit back and watch him weep, weep, like a child, will weep. (laughter) oh, where are you, jeb bush? captioning sponsored by comedy central (laughter) quick off the top. a couple nights ago i responded to the way christmas sell brants feel when they are unable to celebrate christmas at all times and all places. and i addressed our nation thusly. >> my fellow american, tonight i hum below come before you to declare war on christmas. >> that was two days ago. now look at me. (laughter) look how war ages a man. that is weird, how can i age in two days. is that-- well, last night one of santa's unusually large elves fired back. >> our pal jon stewart is following the various christmas controversies very

closely. >> no, there is no question that mr. stewart is going to hell. (laughter) (applause) (laughter) >> jon: i know. (laughter) but here's what you and your mignons don't understand, o'reilly. your hell doesn't scare me. i make my living watching fox news eight hours a day. (laughter) i'm already in hell. (laughter) boom! (cheers and applause) boom! your move, o'reilly! actually, talk of the war on christmas brings me to a fun fact. did you know that not all americans celebrate christmas? (laughter) it's true. many american jews celebrate a completely different

holiday called-- how come we don't get to celebrate christmas. i see. it's actually called the republican jewish coalition forum. it is celebrated every four years. for this holiday jews commemorate the miracle of incredibly religious christian presidential candidates fighting over who loves jews more. and lo, god provided the hebrews two good look mormons, though they had prayed for but one. well, to be honest, none, they wanted giuliani but that's not going to happen. so who will win the tuchu tuchus-kissoff. >> karen and i have been to israel. >> we bought one of those, you know, tiles that said "pray for the peace of jerusalem" and we have that on our kitchen right above our sink. >> jon: ah! (laughter) so santorum opens with-- i have one of your tchotchkes. (laughter)

>> jon: and i was also thinking about buying one of them glass birds that looks like they're drinking, maybe has a little tiny top hat that says israel but wouldn't fit in the luggage. can anyone top santorum. >> i feel as sheryl shared with you a very special connection to israel. when i first visited the holy land. repeatedly been to the western wall. that most sacred symbol of where jewish pilgrims gather to pray today. >> jon: nice. anybody can grab a souvenir tile at the duty-free at the airport. you went to a ruin. that's going to be tough to beat. >> the day after i graduated from high school, i left and i took a plane and i went to work on a kibbutz. >> jon: holy-- we have a winner! oh my gosh! (applause) >> jon: she worked on a kibbutz. michele bachmann loves

israel so much she was willing to join a socialist collective. wow! but what would you as president do for israel. >> strategic aid in all forms under a perry administration will increase to israel. >> the united states will stop iran from getting a nuclear weapon, period. >> iran's ayatollahs will not be permitted to obtain nuclear weaponses. >> the united states will move our embassy from tel aviv to jerusalem. >> jon: i will get on a plane on my first day as president to jerusalem and put a palestinian in a head lock. (laughter) >> jon: i will give them a wedgey. -- bachmann is killing it. let's check in on how she is doing on the yarmulkometer, oh, she's -- owe, superstar of david!

wow all she really needs to do now is stick the landing at the end of her speech, hit it. >> shalom alecheim. (laughter) >> jon: all right so, good for you, nice to throw down a little of the hebrew to jewish forum, that was nice. that takes a lot of -- >> he has a lot of hutzpah. >> jon: i was going to say huts park i was going to say cajones, but okay. in the end the big win never the forum was one newt gingrich who received state of the unionesque applause, standing ovations and the kind of laughter that jackie mason would kill for and has. >> i will in the acceptance speech challenge the president to seven three-hour debates. i will concede in advance that he can use a teleprompter. >> jon: did you hear that? we do not add the lady goin

going-- naaaah! that's how funny jews think teleprompter jokes are. could mitt romney newt's main rival match him? he got applause. he actually too got a standing ovation at the end of his speech. things are looking good for mitt. >> remember the george costanza line when they are laughing and applauding, you sit down. >> jon: oh, misquoting seinfeld in front of a jewish audience, that's going to cost ya! see first of all it is not a george kotion tanza line, it's jerry's line. >> george, when you hit that high note, say good night and walk off. >> jon: and you got the line wrong, that would be like standing up there and going like the fascist soup vendor used to say, i am afraid that i am out of delicious soup. ha, ha, ha. (laughter) >> jon: how does that affect romney's rank on the yarmulkometer. oh, he is down to about-- oh, i have no candidate.

i have no candidate! interestingly, the one candidate absent from the debate was ron paul. he is doing very well in the polls but according to rjc executive director matt brooks he was left out because the republican jewish council rejects his misguided and extreme views on israel. wow, misguided and extreme, oh my god, has he suggested israel has no right to exist or that it is to be exchanged for rhode island. >> would you cut aid to israel. >> i would cut all foreign aid. i would treat everybody equally and fairly. >> jon: good call, not inviting any presidential candidates to your forum who might disagree with you. wouldn't want to turn it into a debate. you know f there is one thing jews can't stand-- arguing. (laughter) >> jon: we'll be right back.

>> jon: welcome back. the iphone, the ipad, they seem like the perfect baby-sitters. economical, always available and you can't have an affair with them. (laughter) but did you know they could actually cost you much more than a real baby-sitter? aasif mandvi has more. >> video games. for years they've come under fire foreign couraging violence, perpetuating ethnic stereotypes, and inspiring the faulty belief that if you get stuck behind a car for a few seconds your head will repair itself. but a new era of games have arrived that are good for

kids. >> our most popular game is called tap fish. it is a virtual aquarium. and you have to go in and feed your little virtual fish with virtual fish food. >> and game makers added a valuable twist that parents love. >> traditionally you had to go to the store and buy a $60 cartridge in order to play. this new model you can play games for free. >> wow, free. which explains why tap fish has been downloaded 20 million times. >> games like tap fish are valuable to children because they have to go in and take care of the fish, if they don't, the fish will die. and then once they die, that's it. with a virtual fish tank you can revive fish. but it cost money to revive the fish. so that's a good lesson for kids. if you kill something, you can throw money at it, to bring it back to life. >> well, that's how the game works. >> oh so, it turns out these games are free until you don't want them to suck. at which point kids can simply push this button and instantly charge $100 worth

of better fish to an itunes account and nobody had a better aquarium than the better ram kids of mount pellier, vermont. >> i wasn't paying attention to them playing a free game like this and next thing i know they spent over $1500 bucks for crap digital fishies. >> you spent over a thousand dollars playing tap fish? >> that was all he had. >> actually, i might have gone over -- >> so you maxed out the credit card. >> is that what happened? yeah. >> reporter: even though an intervention has been staged for these kids, tap fish is still pulling in a million dollars a month. >> you provide a product, the first one is free. and then as they get more accustomed to your product, the price rises. >> yes. >> so you are a drug dealer. >> no, we're not like a drug dealer. i mean we've had many parents e-mail us, tell us that this game is teaching their kids responsibility. we actually spoke to a

parent whose kid loves your game. would you be willing to talk to him on the phone? >> would i be willing to talk to him on the phone. >> talk to him on the phone, right now. >> we-- i would rather handle these things via e-mail. >> right, right, but this parent just wants to like talk to you. hold on, i'm going to put you-- michael? >> yes. >> hi. okay, so are you on with the c.e.o. of tap fish. >> you people should be ashamed of yourselves. i think it is outrageous. >> and over the course of the next 20 minutes they never did exchange e-mails. >> do these games target kids? >> i wouldn't say we necessarily target kids. >> you can still play our games for free. that's the important part. >> take advantage of the, you know-- and then -- >> kids are smarter than you think. >> are they? >> children's brains are not

yet fully developed. the prefrontal cortex of the brain that controls impulses, it doesn't fully develop until we are in our late 20s. they are very drawn to anything that moves. anything that is colourful, if you threaten death of animals, for instance, kids are going to be emotionally invested in that and not want it to happen. >> are there any other mental deficiencies in children that we can profit from? >> i mean they are learning responsibility. if you don't take care of things, they get dirty, messy, or the fish dies. >> and because kids have an underdeveloped frontal cortex, they want to keep learning how to take care of fish, right? >> kid does like to learn, that's true. >> they sure do. >> if there was a game called max out your dad's credit card, we would have won. >> and thanks to my cousin in bangalore, now there's an app for that.

>> you're maxed out! >> aasif

>> jon: welcome back. my guest tonight, republican strategist, former chair of the republican national committee please welcome back to this program ed ed gillespie. sir! nice to see you again. >> good to see you. thank you. (applause) >> jon: how are you? >> i'm good, thanks, how are you?

>> jon: these are busy times i would imagine. >> they are very interesting times if you are a republican watching the presidential primary. it's exciting. >> jon: you know, you have come out, are you partnered with karl rove in this cross wards. and karl has come out and he has said that this trump debate over the holidays should not take place. do agree with that? >> i would-- the way i would put it is if i were a candidate i probably would not attend the trump debate. first of all donald trump has said he is considering running for president himself as an independent. why would you subject yourself to being posed questions to by somebody who may run against you. >> jon: let's say are you not a political strategist. let's say you are a comedian. (laughter) why would you take this away from me? and could you please make this happen for me? >> i am hopeful for the emeril moderated debate on the food network. >> jon: trump is going to bring you down, brother! >> probably. >> jon: solis enbarack obama is going to run for

re-election on the idea that we have had an economy now with 21 straight months of growth. not the kind of growth that we would all want, that his stimulus without it, the economy would be even worse than it would be. but that things are moving in the right direction. what sayette you to this? >> i think that when are you at 8.6% unemployment which granted is better than 9.1% unemployment, but still too high, and the fact is the growth in the jobs that were promised from the stimulus haven't shown up. we've, in fact, are seeing cycle job creation i think because of the president's policies, too much regulation, in other words, there was a piece today about carl's, jr., the hamburger place, they are spending twice as much to meet the health care mandate as they spent building new restaurants last year. >> jon: wow. >> i talked to a banker today in tennessee who said that he has more compliance officers than loan officers working at his bank right now. >> jon: what if we got a

consumer protection board, that could really oversee this kind of stuff? you know, i think they voted on that today in the senate, did they not? what happened with that? >> the nominee-- . >> jon: i'm sorry, who did. >> that would be the republicans in the senate. >> jon: oh, okay. (laughter) >> jon: so the-- so the person that would make maybe perhaps compliance easier got shot down. >> well, i think the point, jon, actually is that this person would not make compliance easier. the fact is, what the republicans want to get is greater oversight this is a board of-- of the consumer protection board it should report to congress. most agencies do. and it shouldn't be someone who is set up to you know regulate without oversight. that's not the way the process works or should work. >> jon: in your mind, if i may, banks are overregulated. businesses are overregulated. the only thing we really need to regulate are the people that are going to be

regulating. is that correct? >> you know-- . >> jon: is that right? >> i do think there's-- you know, this, the dodd frank bill kicked out over 300 regulations. i do think it's causing banks not lend as much because they are very concerned about the compliance. and look, i do think that the founders are right to have the executive branch be subject to oversight by the legislative branch. i worked in the bush white house. we were subject to plenty of oversights on the legislate-- by the legislative branch. >> jon: sir, you don't want to go there i've got some executive orders that were signed that would perhaps testify to the opposite of that. >> and you heard about them in congressional hearings. >> jon: that's probably true. but you know, the interesting thing to me is, i think you're right. you know, regulation is a problem. it gets too bureaucratic. they need to simplify it. i think they have sundaystein work on some of that. it surprises me that people can't get together on that but what's more surprising to me, is just like what you said, wouldn't it free up

businesses more if we decouple health care from business? >> yes, absolutely it would. >> jon: so you are for single payor. >> no, i'm for-- i'm for saying that the fact is health care as a-- an employee benefit is an anachronistic system it was advised to get around wage controls it was implemented at a time when someone might go to work at general motors and work there for 25 years. now people move, you move 8, 9 jobs. >> jon: so how can we do it, how can we remove it. >> i think it should be based on the individual. you should be able to risk pool outside your employer. one of the reasons that employers are so important-- . >> jon: like an exchange. >> an exchange, yeah, i would make a private sector exchange. you could have a state option. but there should be more freedom for people to choose, maybe it's your alumni association. maybe it's your professional association. but you should be able to risk going across statelines in in my estimation and we

should move the deduction from the employer to the employee. i think there are a lot of reforms that you could do that would be market oriented that would help make health care more affordable. >> jon: do you think-- what should we do for veterans with their health care. what could we do for them. should we privatize that as well. >> i don't think we should privatize. i think the government has a obligation, a rightful obligation to our veterans to make sure that they have health care. there are proposals that would say-- . >> jon: do you think they get decent health care. >> i do, yeah. >> jon: so the government provides them with pretty decent health care. >> yeah, i'm not saying that, you know, the government doesn't have a role in health care it does. but i don't think-- i think what you are seeing is a lot of people as a result of the mandate that was imposed by this bill, in particular, i'm not saying we shouldn't have health-care reform. i'm saying this health-care reform is having an adverse impact. >> jon: but you understand what i am saying. >> it is raising the cost to employees. >> jon: the kplint about health-care reform is you got government involved in health care and then you flip that and say well veterans deserve the best

health care and i think we have an obligation to provide it for them. and it does make you wonder, well, right, why can't we decouple health care from businesses, allow them the freedom then to hire in a better way, but maybe set up a system similar to what we have done for veterans. maybe not to the same extent that we do, but that could give people maybe that protection. >> a couple things. first of all, the veteran's health-care benefit is a benefit that accrued to someone who served in government service in our armed services. and should be-- . >> jon: i don't question. >> but if are you in the private sector why would you want to impose on them that they have to have a government run health-care system. why not keep a private sector system, i'm not saying. >> jon: you can keep a private sector system. i'm just saying, the argument has always been if you get government involved in health care they will destroy it. it's socialism but we do it for a veterans and we do it not perfectly, but i would say pretty well. and why not provide that for citizens at a lower level? and then allow businesses the freedom to then hire without that benefit. >> by the way, i wouldn't

oppose having veterans also have the ability to have a voucher that allows them to go to other hospitals other than veteran's hospitals if they were closer to their homes. so i don't think they should have to be inside an entire-- . >> jon: privatize it. >> i am not saying previous atize the va hospitals. >> jon: do you have five minutes, six minutes. we're going to go to the commercial. the rest will be up on the web. thank you for coming by, ed gillespie, and then we're going ta