Is Obama the next Hitler?

In Thursday’s episode of The Daily Show a segment entitled, “Obama and Hitler,” featured a story about Congressman Paul Broun’s recent comments to the Associated Press comparing President-Elect Barack Obama to Adolf Hitler.

Broun, a congressman for Georgia’s 10th congressional district, said, “It may sound a bit crazy and off base, but the thing is, he’s the one who proposed this national security force. I’m just trying to bring attention to the fact that we may — may not, I hope not — but we may have a problem with that type of philosophy of radical socialism or Marxism.”

Broun was referring to a July speech made by Obama in Colorado.

In the speech Obama said, “We cannot continue to rely only on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives that we’ve set. We’ve got to have a civilian national security force that’s just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded.”

“That’s exactly what Hitler did in Nazi Germany and it’s exactly what the Soviet Union did,” said Broun. “When he’s proposing to have a national security force that’s answering to him, that is as strong as the U.S. military, he’s showing me signs of being Marxist.”

Obama’s comments were made during a speech which also included a call to build civil service corps and increase the size of the Peace Corps “to renew our diplomacy.”

“We can’t be lulled into complacency,” Broun said. “You have to remember that Adolf Hitler was elected in a democratic Germany. I’m not comparing him to Adolf Hitler. What I’m saying is there is the potential.”

Gun owners fear Obama administration will curtail 2nd amendment rights

In Thursday’s episode of The Daily Show a segment entitled, “Baracknophobia – Post Election Edition,” featured a story about the significant increase in gun sales across the country in recent months out of fear that Barack Obama could win the election.

According to an article in the New York Times, citizens are worried that the new Obama administration will increase gun control and curtail a citizen’s second amendment right to bear arms.

A one-day record for the highest number of background check requests for gun ownership was set in Colorado just days before the election according to the article.

“We’re not really sure who is promoting the concept that a change in federal administrations might affect firearms possession rights,” said an agency spokesman for the Colorado Bureau of Investigation, Lance Clem, to Kirk Johnson of the New York Times, “but we do know that it’s increased business considerably.”

The battle over gun control has been prevalent throughout the campaign in many states where gun ownership is popular. The day before the election, copies of The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette arrived at the homes of its readers wrapped in a plastic bag that read, “Vote Freedom First” and “Defend Freedom – Defeat Obama;” paid for by the National Rifle Association whose initials were printed on each bag.

Democrats responded by mailing fliers to citizens in Pennsylvania and across the country  that stated that if Obama won the election, he would respect a citizen’s right to own firearms.

However, there are some who cannot forget last April when Obama made a comment to a group of supporters in San Francisco that some small town Pennsylvanians “cling to guns or religion” as a way to “explain their frustrations,” according to a report by CNN.

Other outcomes of the election: a ban on gay marriage in three states

A segment on Thursday’s episode of the Daily Show entitled, “Gary & Gary Unmarried,” featured a story on how three states banned gay marriage as part of the election ballot on November 4th.

The three states – California, Arizona, and Florida – were the only ones with ballots that included the bans compared with eight in 2006 and 11 in 2004 according to an article by Randal Archibold and Abby Goodnough of the New York Times.

Its success in California, however, came as a surprise to many who consider the state as “a trend-setter in so many arenas,” according to the article. And was seen as a “major defeat for gay rights activists.”

With all precincts in California reporting, the Associated Press said that the ban – known as Proposition 8 – passed by about 52 percent of the vote.

A record amount of money – $73 million – was spent on this ballot measure making it the most costly race for a social issue proposition ever.

Advocates of the ban on gay marriage ran a series of ads that claimed that if the proposition was not passed then children could be taught about gay marriage in schools.

Opponents of the ban also ran a series of ads that claimed that banning gay marriage was the equivalent of denying homosexuals their fundamental civil rights.

The ban comes only six months after the California Suprem Court ruled that same-sex couples have a constitutional right to marry.

Sarah Palin Haten’

A segment on Thursday’s episode of the Daily Show entitled, “Sarah Palin is so Dumb…” featured a story about former Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin and her lack of knowledge of basic civics and governmental responsibilities.

The story was first reported by Carl Cameron of FOX News on Wednesday after aides for the McCain campaign anonymously spoke of several basic governmental facts that Palin was allegedly unaware of.

Some of the biggest mistakes include the fact that Palin did not know that Africa is a continent and not a country and that the three countries in the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) include the United States, Canada, and Mexico.

Palin claims that the statements aren’t true.

”If there are allegations based on questions or comments that I made in debate prep [with democratic vice presidential candidate Joe Biden] about NAFTA, and about the continent vs. the country when we talk about Africa there, then those were taken out of context,” she told the Associated Press. ”That’s cruel, It’s mean-spirited. It’s immature. It’s unprofessional and those guys are jerks if they came away with it, taking things out of context and then tried to spread something on national news. It’s not fair, and it’s not right.”

Cameron said that he wished he could have spoken of Palin’s lack of knowledge before the election but that the McCain aides expressly asked that their statements not be made public until after the election was decided.

Obama’s infomericial is a ratings hit

A segment on Thursday’s episode of the Daily Show entitled, “Barack’s Millions,” featured a story on the half-hour $3 million infomercial that Barack Obama aired on seven different television networks during primetime Wednesday night.

The infomercial included four examples of middle-class Americans who have fallen on hard times financially and laid out Obama’s plans for his presidency that included a better health care plan, a better approach to foreign affairs, and better tax plans that would help each of these struggling citizens and many more like them across the country.

The infomercial appeared on three broadcast channels (CBS, NBC, FOX), three cable networks (BET, MSNBC, TV One), and Univision – a spanish-language channel – and was seen by 33.55 million viewers, according to Nielsen Media Research.

“I was shocked by the number Obama was able to draw,” said Chairman of CBS Leslie Moonves, to Bill Carter of the New York Times. “It’s just a stunning number.”

The last presidential campaign to attempt such on-air programming was Ross Perot in 1996 when he bought a half-hour special on three networks. The ratings for this fell short of Obama’s infomerical with only 22.7 million people tuning in, according to an article in the New York Times.

After the infomercial aired, Senator John McCain’s campaign released a statement that read, “As anyone who has bought anything from an infomercial knows, the sales-job is always better than the product. Buyer beware,” according to the Caucus Blog on the New York Times website.