The President’s Daily Show drive-by was a sad reminder that comedy and colloquy don’t always mix, but even worse for those who admire both Barack Obama and Jon Stewart, it reflected the country’s mood swing over the past two years.
The Tea Party temper tantrum is the headline, but this encounter was a sour reminder of how far those who were high on Obama’s coming have crashed and burned. Days before election, to persuade supporters to get out and vote against the likes of Rand Paul, Christine McConnell and Linda McMahon, he has to explain why he turned to Larry Summers for economic advice. Would they have preferred John McCain and Joe the Plumber?
Across the political spectrum, the grownups are gone, unwilling to give Obama credit for what he calls “making progress step by step and inch by inch.”
Yet, there are good reasons to be disappointed in the President’s performance, and his unequivocal defense of the health care reform mess as getting “90 percent” of what he wanted is one of them. But days before the election, on the Daily Show, are not the time and place for debating his shortcomings.
If Obama was in full professorial mode, Stewart seemed flummoxed in the role of inquisitor–polite deference is not his best move.