"Obama on 'The Daily Show'" CSM

"President Obama’s turn on Jon Stewart’s Wednesday comedy show was a bit of bait and switch, in that the tone, the content, and the message turned out to be pretty darn serious. It was a half-hour that would have fit nicely in rotation with those Sunday morning shows – think “Meet the Press” or “Face the Nation.”"  CSM

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I think this was a bad idea.  Stewart is a clever man, but he is a comedian.  The president of the United States should not act as a "straight man" for a comedian. Obama is trying to reach more potential voters?  I understand that, but the gravitas of the office is damaged by participation in such events.

"Dude?"  Stewart addressed the commander in chief of the armed forces as "dude?" The president has the actual power to order death en masse and does so order death in the form of national security "findings."  Should someone with that kind of power participate in political grandstanding and clowning?

The Democratic Party may benefit from this but the republic will not.  pl 

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Election-2010/Vox-News/2010/1028/Obama-on-The-Daily-Show-with-Jon-Stewart-heavy-on-issues-hold-the-comedy

Comments

[Anthony]

Whether we like it or not Stewart is no longer just a comedian. I thought it was a good interview. I would have liked Stewart to question him on foreign policy too but I guess the mid-terms is all about domestic issues.

[John Minnerath]

The president of the US on Comedy Central??
I wouldn't watch it or read it.
It demeans the office.
The entire "talk show" circuit is just as bad.

[SteveB]

Stewart has moved beyond being a comedian. His questions of politicians are usually considerably more insightful and challenging then what they find themselves subjected to on any of the Sunday shows. That he uses humor as a vehicle doesn't bother me, nor do I think it casts aspersions on the Presidency....humor can often expose a truth that otherwise goes unacknowledged.

Having said that, I don't think this was his best interview.

[William R. Cumming]

Nixon appeared on Saturday Night Live and started the descent into impropriety. Yes, PL you at least have standards whatever the other merits of this performance.
The Office has been demeaned.

But hey if the House in the 112th Congress indicts him for War Crimes he may regret his appearance on a comedy show.

[lina]

Dude! Lighten up!

What Anthony says is true. Stewart is the modern day version of the court fool who is allowed to speak the truth to the king with impunity.

I know I've said this before, but it is the crux of Obama's problem: THEY HAVE NO MEDIA STRATEGY.

In business it's not enough to have a product; you've got to have a marketing plan. Then you need smart, creative, agressive people to carry out your marketing plan. That's how you get people to buy your product.

From day one, this White House has had no answer to all the pervasive propaganda. None. Their communications shop might as well not exist.

Americans needed the Hoover policies of '29-'32 in order to see/feel how bad it could get after the banking system melts down. FDR took over with 25 percent unemployment in our land. By '39 it was still 15 percent, WHICH WAS A HELL OF A LOT BETTER THAN 25 !!! (sorry to shout, but it's frustrating).

There aren't many left who remember the 1930s, and God knows no one learns about it any history classes taught today. But is was incumbant on Obama, et. al., to educate us about how his actions (yes, the bailouts, etc.) were all about preventing another Great Depression. He failed to do that because they did not forsee that they needed a marketing strategy.

Now the 2010 election cycle has turned into The Year of the Lunatic. All for want of a PR and advertising campaign.

[walrus]

Col Lang:

" ....the gravitas of the office is damaged by participation in such events....................Should someone with that kind of power participate in political grandstanding and clowning?"

Since Obama doesn't do empathy, the ideas of gravitas and the dignity of the office can't occur to him. He does what he is told will look good.

In private he probably rails to his handlers; "I'm being what you want me to be when you want me to be it." Why are my poll numbers still down?

On a more serious note, does the comedy show play in bases in Afghanistan? What would a serving Twenty Two year old think? Are we all too old for our opinions to matter? There must be American kids fighting in Afghanistan who were Ten years old when the towers came down.

[Cesar Arroyo]

Stewart exposes young people to serious debate when they would otherwise not watch.

[rjj]

comes down to labeling.

and maybe a case of gnats and camels.

and/or carts and horses.

It is not the official plutocrat spokesmodel we call president appearing on a show labeled comedy that debases the office/political process in our republic --- make that our quondam republic.

[J.]

Exactly, Anthony. It's a little short-sighted to call Stewart a "comedian." He's a satirist, sure, but he's done a lot to reach out and try to establish a dialogue between right and left political sides, while sparing neither when they have acted as fools. We need him because without him we'd really be lost.

[Jake]

We lost the Republic a long time ago....

[Ael]

Jesters belong with kings.

They allow important things to be discussed that for all sorts of social reasons can not be discussed by people with "gravitas".

[frank durkee]

A significant number of my children and their friends use The Daily Show as a prime news source. They tend to trust it more than the regular or cable news channels, further none of them are newspaper readers, nor do they follow popular news magazines. They arenow in their early 30's and this has been true for some years.

[Cato the Censor]

No disrespect to Mr. Cummings and it doesn't detract from his point at all, but I believe that Nixon appeared on Laugh-In (I'm actually old enough to remember that). Also (and this isn't my original point either), does Obama's appearance on The Daily Show diminish the dignity of his office more or less than Bush II smacking the backside of a female volleyball player in a bikini?

[Patrick Lang]

Cato et al

As I remember it Bush passed on the opportunity.

Having succeeded in stimulating you all over the Stewart/Obama show I have achieved my purpose. pl

[William R. Cumming]

Thanks CATO! Mind slipping- it twas Laugh IN!

[Buzz Meeks]

I remember Trick E saying "sock it to me".

Unfortunately Stewart is probably the closest thing we have that looks, acts and walks like a real old time journalist. I am old enough to remember Laugh-In and I am old enough to remember real journalists.

I never thought I would become old enough to witness the end of our republic.

Buzz Meeks

[graywolf]

The demeaning of the office started with Clinton, paused with Bush and is going straight down hill with this narcissistic clownish empty suit.

[graywolf]

"Stewart exposes young people to serious debate when they would otherwise not watch."

The only serious thing about Stewart is his paycheck.

[ked]

The shark of respect for gov officials was jumped long ago - when they started treating us like subjects, leveraging deference to authority as a means to segregate themselves from polity.

And since the traditional media & punditocracy has done such a wonderful job serving the nation, we must depend upon politics-by-other-means to influence policy-making.

Given the condition of our political culture, one might live it, or live with it.

We could do far worse than Stewart & Colbert... & probably will.

[Fred]

President Obama would not have been called 'dude' on Fox, but then thier ratings among younger viewers are down 26% from 2009.

http://www.mediabistro.com/tvnewser/q3-2010-ratings-fox-news-still-on-top-but-down-double-digits_b32847

[zot23]

Last I checked, the President was a man just like everyone else. He gets up, eats his breakfast, goes to the bathroom, puts his pants on one leg at a time. He is a civilian and though accorded importance due to his standing, America does not have an emperor. We have a civilian acting as president 4 years at a time. There is nothing divine or majestical about an American president, that was the point of the revolution.

Besides, after what each president has been "doing" to the office over the last few decades, this is what demeans it? Not Iran-contra, BJs under the Oval desk, blatant lies to start trillion dollar wars, torture, secret illegal spying programs on citizens, immoral bank bailouts (for the rich only), and did I mention torture?

Yeah, talking to Jon Stewart and being called, "dude" must be the culprit for any loss of respect the president suffers.

[ex-PFC Chuck]

lina:

I know I've said this before, but it is the crux of Obama's problem: THEY HAVE NO MEDIA STRATEGY.

The most generous assessment is that they have no strategy at all - media or otherwise - nor any spine. A less generous view is that they deliberately ran a bait-and-switch campaign in 2008.

[ex-PFC Chuck]

Walrus:

. . does the comedy show play in bases in Afghanistan?

Probably not. The TVs are tuned to Faux Noise and PBS (Proselytizing Broadcasting Company). http://tinyurl.com/2v39m9p

[Stephanie]

"There is nothing divine or majestical about an American president, that was the point of the revolution."

True. But we're talking about the respect due his office and responsibilities, not doing the kow-tow.

But then Obama showed up on a program whose bread and butter still includes dick jokes, so he probably had it coming.

Obama is probably as bright as we're told, but he's none too quick. Kennedy (or Reagan) could have deflected Stewart with a quip or a joke. Obama pointed his finger and lectured.

[johnf]

O/T

Attorneys filed a petition asking President Barack Obama to commute Jonathan Pollard’s life sentence. The petition argues that Pollard, a civilian U.S. Navy analyst who pled guilty to spying for Israel in 1986, received a sentence greater than "many others who were found guilty of similar activity on behalf of nations adversarial to us, unlike Israel." Four Democratic members of Congress are circulating a letter in Congress supporting clemency. Former assistant secretary of Defense Lawrence Korb is also calling for Pollard’s release, arguing that initial damage assessments of Pollard’s espionage performed by his boss, former Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger, were overblown.

http://original.antiwar.com/smith-grant/2010/10/28/jonathan-pollards-first-freedom-gambit/