Obama on 'Daily Show': Will Jon Stewart make fun of him?
President Obama is appearing on 鈥�The Daily Show鈥� on Wednesday night. It鈥檚 a fake news program produced by Comedy Central, remember 鈥� so will host Jon Stewart make fun of America鈥檚 chief executive to his face?
No. At least, we鈥檙e 98 percent certain that he won鈥檛.
Reason No. 1: Mr. Stewart is kind of, sort of, liberal-leaning. In a restrained 鈥�Rally to Restore Sanity鈥� way.
Reason No. 2: It would be rude, and he would never have a chance to interview a top Democrat again. And that would be a bummer, since his show is in Washington all week, and you can spend only so much time at the Smithsonian looking at Archie Bunker鈥檚 chair and Judy Garland鈥檚 ruby slippers.
Reason No. 3: Comedy hosts, even comedy hosts who are trusted sources of actual news for millions of Americans, generally don鈥檛 ask tough questions in face-to-face interviews, no matter how unrestrained their other material is. Paradoxically, this is because they often try to prove they鈥檙e not just clowns. So they ask detailed questions from the talking points provided by staff, along the lines of, 鈥淚sn鈥檛 the president鈥檚 small-business bill designed to stimulate infrastructure investment? And if so, how?鈥�
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Perhaps they want to prove they can have a conversation about policy. David Letterman does this. Jay Leno does this. Stewart does this. (Stephen Colbert does not 鈥� he鈥檚 an outlier. He鈥檒l force an arms-control expert to pick the one country he鈥檇 nuke, if he had to nuke one.)
Sure, then they鈥檒l build some kind of shtick off the policy bit. Stewart did this Monday when he talked to White House economist Austan Goolsbee about the aforementioned small-business legislation. He ended up comparing Mr. Goolsbee to Braveheart, and Stewart recalled in his younger days how he had to apologize for what his friends did in bars.
But in some ways, presidential appearances on non-news shows can produce more-interesting insights than news interviews. In our opinion.
Mr. Obama himself is not concerned that appearing on a show that is supposed to be funny will detract from the seriousness of what he has to say, according to White House spokesman Robert Gibbs.
Asked on Tuesday whether the president is worried about mixing entertainment and politics, Mr. Gibbs replied, 鈥淛on Stewart is sort of past that,鈥� with the implication being that Stewart is fully aware of the odd quasi-journalist position he occupies.
Why is Obama doing the show at all? Because that鈥檚 where the voters are. In particular, that鈥檚 where the young voters are, Gibbs said.
鈥淭he president hasn鈥檛 been shy about going to the places where people are getting their information and trying to make his case. And I think that鈥檚 what he鈥檒l do on the [Stewart] show,鈥� said Gibbs.
