Wow... just... wow...

Michael Moore was on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno this evening, and I must say it was... well it was scary. First of all, he cleaned himself up. He shaved, lost the hat, combed his hair, and he was wearing a suit. He said, "If you can't beat 'em, you might as well look like them." There was a small part where he cracked a few seriously light-hearted Leno-style jokes about Bush. He even joked about himself. It almost seems like he's taking the advice of the bloggers. He didn't flip out about Kerry's loss or about how Bush stole the election. He acknowledged that the Democratic party didn't have anything to offer the people other than that he wasn't Bush. He was downright humble. When Leno asked him what he thinks happened in Ohio, he actually concedes, "I think Bush got more votes."

Now, the second part wasn't quite so humble. Leno mentioned Bin Laden's tape, where he refers to the "My Pet Goat" scene in Fahrenheit 9/11, and Moore really just sort of dodged the question and brought up that the media didn't show the whole "My Pet Goat" footage from Fahrenheit 9/11. Of course, he doesn't mention it was primarily because it was several minutes of dead air. He leaves you to make your own decision. For the most part, I would honestly have to say he was reasonable, but he did make it a point to plug his book by reading a passage.

I have to mention this thing, that I caught. He says he got 3,000 letters from soldiers in Iraq, that he threw together to sell to people (aka, his latest book, "Will They Ever Trust Us Again?"). But remember, even if those came from 3,000 individual soldiers, there are what 100-200 thousand soldiers there? I forget the figure at the moment, and I can't seem to find a statistic on the net. I want to say there's 200 thousand there, but there may only be 100 thousand. Regardless, say it's only 100 thousand. The letters he got, if they're all from individual soldiers, represent 3% of the soldiers there. If there are more than 100 thousand, then it's less than 3%. He's still on the fringe.

But, I'll get back to the good. He didn't mention "Fahrenheit 9/11 1/2" or "Sicko." He didn't mention bogus voter fraud allegations in Florida or Ohio. He didn't whine and complain. I gotta give him credit for growing up, at least for his first appearance since the election. I really want to say that I can finally drop it, and let Michael Moore go. But I'm hesitant to accept that he won't be back. We'll see.

Update: It's rather obvious that it's all an act, and a thinly veiled bid for an Oscar nod. But I'm still going to say... whatever. While his website still makes mention of voter fraud in Ohio, he told a bigger audience that "Bush got more votes." Good enough for me.