When the NFL delayed a Philadelphia Eagles game last week because of a potential snowstorm, outgoing Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell decided that was the last straw: America had become a country of “wussies.” But comedian Stephen Colbert senses hypocrisy at work.
In an interview Monday night on The Colbert Report, Rendell was asked if not running again for governor (in spite of Pennsylvania’s term limits) made him the wussy. After all, New York’s mayor Michael Bloomberg and Texas Gov. Rick Perry both won third terms.
Rendell was careful: “You could interpret it that way.” The longtime political leader said he has other things to do. Namely, relearn how to drive. “It’s been 20 years since I’ve driven a car,” he said. “You got to help me out, which one’s the gas pedal, which one’s the break?”
Rendell didn’t back down, though, on his criticism of the country’s backbone.
“We’re a country that was based on risk takers,” Rendell said last night. “The original founding fathers didn’t have a shot beating the most powerful army in the world. We were farmers and shopkeepers and they signed their name on a bill that said if we lose, we’re going be executed, and they took the risk because they believed in something. We seem to have lost the adventure spirit, the pioneer spirit… and it’s not just a football game, although when they canceled that football game, Stephen, not one drop of snow had fallen in Philadelphia.”
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