Old flame wars never die.
Jon Stewart, host of The Daily Show on Comedy Central, was taking new jabs at Jim Cramer during last night's show. Profiling this year's fall from grace of Lenny Dykstra, former baseball player and erstwhile options newsletter advisor on TheStreet.com (Nasdaq: TSCM), Stewart dug up a clip in which Cramer sings Dykstra's praises on an HBO special last year.
Cramer deems it "brilliant" that Dykstra can apply his baseball skills to investing. He even suggests that the colorful ex-Phillies star is one of the four or five people whose hot stock picks he would trust.
"He's one of the great ones in this business," Cramer says. "He's one of the great ones."
Ouch.
Once gain, Stewart is digging into the video vault to find something saucy to throw Cramer's way. And when you're Cramer, seemingly always on television making brash market calls, there will never be a shortage of ammo.
He's merely human
In all fairness to Cramer, no investor has a perfect batting average. Even the mighty Warren Buffett has struck out on a few Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK-A) investments, such as Pier One (NYSE: PIR), US Airways, and Dexter Shoes.
When you invest -- or talk stocks -- in front of the public, folks will remember your misses more than they will your hits.
Last night's poke was pretty harmless. The clip itself isn't as damaging as the one Stewart cornered Cramer with when they had their on-air showdown in March. Back then, Stewart's staff unearthed a gem, in which Cramer appears to be delighting in the simplicity of starting a bogus rumor to move shares of Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL).
Perfect timing
You know what saved Cramer's hide back in March? His reluctance to swing back at Stewart during the show's thrashing actually left viewers pitying Cramer instead of despising him. And what really helped slow the lynch mob was that the show aired just as the market was bottoming out. Once stocks began heading higher, the market dismissed the lessons of greed and overindulgence.
Those Apple manipulation claims -- which Cramer went on to deny -- themselves seemed to fade away, as even some of the market's biggest dogs, including Ford (NYSE: F) and Bank of America (NYSE: BAC), went on to more than double in value.
Your move, Cramer
So what will Cramer do? If he didn't catch last night's show, there will obviously be plenty of people to fill him in. He's not going to like what he hears. He may be tempted to swing back, the way he regrettably did earlier this year, until he rightfully resigned to taking his lumps on Stewart's show.
Just let this one lie, Jimbo. Even if it's another attack on you -- and a former celebrity advisor at your company -- just let it go.
All you can do at this point is make sure that your show never surrenders education for the sake of entertainment. Getting rid of the "lighting round" segment -- or at least stretching out your responses to more than just a few words -- would work wonders to improve the perception of the due diligence that your Mad Money show offers.
Take the high road. It provides the better view.
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