Michael Graham Has A New Producer; Also, Lots of Opinions

Knowing Michael Graham as he does, Imus was immediately suspicious when the Boston-based radio talk show host complimented his appearance today. “Why are you being nice to me?” Imus demanded to know.
 
But Graham was being serious. “I remember back in the day when you looked like an extra from the cast of ‘The Walking Dead,’” Graham said, almost wistfully, then turned to his second favorite person to make fun of, President Obama.
 
As the third week of protests continues in Egypt, where citizens are demanding President Hosni Mubarak skip town after 30 years, Graham believes one of the biggest problems is that neither side can tell if Obama supports them, or their enemy.
 
“There are a bunch of people in the streets right now, looking to American going, ‘You think that Obama guy is really on our side?’” he said, “Then, there’s a guy in the palace, Hosni Mubarak, going, ‘You think that Obama guy is really on our side?’ And here in America, we’re going, ‘Hey! Welcome to the club!’”
 
He then advised the President, whose support of Mubarak has been tepid at best, “If you’re going to throw a longtime, 30-year ally of your country under the bus—don’t miss the bus.”
 
Initially, Graham had assumed the demonstrations were the result of Egyptians clamoring for freedom and democracy. “Then you find out…that about half the people in Egypt were living off four dollars a day, and a significant percentage were living off two dollars a day,” he said, adding that most of the unemployed young people have no hope of ever finding a real job. “When you have no hope, you’ll consider almost anything.”
 
Right now, “anything” includes a government run by the Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamist political organization that possesses some radical beliefs, and might be more in sync with the Egyptian populace than observers have admitted.
 
“More than 80 percent of the people in Egypt support stoning adulteresses to death,” Graham said, citing a recent Pew Research Center poll. “They support lopping off your hand if you steal something. They support killing you if you convert from Islam.”
 
The lingering problem inside Islam, Graham offered, is that it does not promote a culture of democracy in the Middle East. And Obama’s perceived inability to decide which side—the Egyptian people’s, or Mubarak’s—the U.S. stands behind isn’t helping solve anything.
 
“The common sense thing to do is to stand up, and stand by your principles,” Graham said. “We are basically whores for both sides. There’s no center here. We’re standing by nothing.”
 
Graham, on the other hand, is not afraid to stand by many things, chiefly his opinion on Christina Aguilera, the Black Eyed Peas, and the Superbowl in general: “Sucked, sucked, sucked,” he said, and the new producer of his radio show agrees. “He says he has some television experience, I’ve never heard of him: Keith Olbermann?”
 
-Julie Kanfer