King Abdullah II on the Daily Show

[King]

A very good interview, you're interested.

Definitely nice to hear something about the Middle East that isn't an American political pundit. 

[Antonio the Sixth]

Watching it right now. Looks like a decent guy.

Didn't imagine a foreign head of state would bother going to some random American satirical show.

[bgwah]

Watching it right now. Looks like a decent guy.

Didn't imagine a foreign head of state would bother going to some random American satirical show.

Don't forget he was also on Star Trek Voyager!! But that was a few years before he became King.

[dead0man]

Watching it right now. Looks like a decent guy.

Didn't imagine a foreign head of state would bother going to some random American satirical show.

It happens from time to time.  Looks like Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, Vicente Fox, Evo Morales and Pervez Musharraf have all been on and I'm pretty sure this isn't the first time for King Abdullah...and indeed he was on in Sep of 2010.

[Hash]

Watching it right now. Looks like a decent guy.

He puts on a whole show to appear as a nice, gentle, good guy, but he really isn't a good guy even if he might be on the good side and even if he's Mother Theresa compared to some of his neighbors.

[hawkeye59]

Watching it right now. Looks like a decent guy.

He puts on a whole show to appear as a nice, gentle, good guy, but he really isn't a good guy even if he might be on the good side and even if he's Mother Theresa compared to some of his neighbors.

Well, he seems to have somewhat liberalized Jordan.

[Beet]

"Events, my dear boy, events," -- the only thing separating this charming liberalizer from Bashar Assad

[The Mikado]

"Events, my dear boy, events," -- the only thing separating this charming liberalizer from Bashar Assad

The fact that the House of Hashemite have been pawns of London for well over a century makes it easier for him.

[dead0man]

You guys would rather he'd be a pawn of Tehran?

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

I haven't watched the interview yet, but I'm going to say that his government is probably preferable to any truly democratic government that would likely be elected if he was removed or reduced to a constitutional monarch, that would likely either be Islamist or oozing with corruption and probably more authoritarian to boot.

[Hash]

Well, yeah, he's preferable to a nutjob regime; he's not a really 'bad guy' (and sure, I'll give him benefit of the doubt of his recent reforms/liberalization) but it's still fairly hypocritical for him to heap praise on democracy and talk about in such great terms when he's at the helm of a relatively oppressive regime which restricts press freedoms, civil liberties, political rights and so forth. I remember that when I went to Jordan, behind closed doors, the facade of "the King is great" quickly turned into a string of complaints about him - notably the fact that he's a gambler who lost money one time, his wife getting face lifts, putting up some massively huge flag (which, iirc, was made out of silk) all while the country is one of the poorest in the region and the fact that it is a fairly police state regime. His whole gang still has the hand in the jelly.