On the Daily Show, Obama is the last laugh By Dana Milbank Wednesday, October 27, 2010; 11:49 PM On Comedy Central, the joke was on President Obama Wednesday night. The president had come, on the eve of what will almost certainly be the loss of his governing majority, to plead his case before Jon Stewart, gatekeeper of the disillusioned left. But instead of displaying the sizzle that won him an army of youthful supporters two years ago, Obama had a Brownie moment. The Daily Show host was giving Obama a tough time about hiring the conventional and Clintonian Larry Summers as his top economic advisor. "In fairness," the president replied defensively, "Larry Summers did a heckuva job." "You don't want to use that phrase, dude," Stewart recommended with a laugh. Dude. The indignity of a comedy show host calling the commander in chief "dude" pretty well captured the moment for Obama. He was making this first-ever appearance by a president on the Daily Show as part of a long-shot effort to rekindle the spirit of '08. In the Daily Show, Obama had a friendly host and an even friendlier crowd. But, as in his MTV appearance a couple of weeks ago, Obama didn't try to connect with his youthful audience. He was serious and defensive, pointing a finger at his host several times as he quarreled with the premise of a question. Stewart, who struggled to suppress a laugh as Obama defended Summers, turned out to be an able inquisitor on behalf of aggrieved liberals. He spoke for the millions who had been led to believe that Obama was some sort of a messianic figure. Obama has only himself to blame for their letdown. By raising expectations impossibly high, playing the transformational figure to Hillary Clinton's status-quo drone, he gave his followers an unrealistic hope. "You're coming from a place, you ran on a very high rhetoric: 'hope' and 'change.' And the Democrats this year seem to be running on 'Please, baby, one more chance.'" Stewart observed. "Are you disappointed in how it's gone?" Obama replied that he was advised after the election that "two years from now, folks are going to be frustrated" -- a prediction he did not make public to his starry-eyed supporters at the time. "We have done things that some folks don't even know about," Obama ventured. Oh? "Are you planning a surprise party for us?" the host inquired. In response, Obama recited his well-known, if under-appreciated, list of accomplishments. "Is the difficulty," Stewart asked, "that you have here the distance between what you ran on and what you delivered? You ran with such, if I may, audacity.... yet legislatively it has felt timid at times." Stewart had found the sore point between Obama and his base -- and Obama was irritable. "Jon, I love your show, but this is something where I have a profound disagreement with you," he said. "What happens," he added, "is it gets discounted because the presumption is, well, we didn't get 100 percent of what we wanted, we got 90 percent of what we wanted -- so let's focus on the 10 percent we didn't get." He said that a cancer patient in New Hampshire helped by the bill "doesn't think it's inconsequential." "The suggestion was not that it's inconsequential," the comedian pointed out. Obama leaned in and pointed at the host. "Your suggestion was that it was timid." Still, the president did not really quarrel with Stewart's notion that Obama has done some of his work in a "political manner that has papered over a foundation that is corrupt." "I think that is fair," Obama granted. But when Stewart moved, politely, to point out weaknesses in the health-care legislation, Obama pointed at him again. "Not true!" the president argued. Obama wore a displeased grin as Stewart diagnosed, with high accuracy, the administration's condition: "The expectation, I think, was audacity going in there and really rooting out a corrupt system, and so the sense is, has [the] reality of what hit you in the face when you first stepped in caused you to back down from some of the more visionary things?" "My attitude is if we're making progress, step by step, inch by inch, day by day," Obama said, "that we are being true to the spirit of that campaign." "You wouldn't say you'd run this time as a pragmatist? It wouldn't be, 'Yes we can, given certain conditions?'" "I think what I would say is yes we can, but -- " Stewart, and the audience, laughed at the "but." Obama didn't laugh. "But it's not going to happen overnight," he finished. Try shouting that slogan at a campaign rally, dude. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dy.../10/27/AR2010102709035.html?hpid=opinionsbox1
It's ironic that 55% of voters are outraged and downright alarmed by what Obama has pushed through but members of his kook base, like Stewart, are pouting that he didn't do enough. What did they expect? Of course, he did lie to them repeatedly about such things as no lobbyists in his administration, and he has pretty much adopted the Bush war on terror policy, except now terrorists get ACLU lawyers. I'm not sure if he has lowered the level of the oceans yet, as promised.
Its ironic that so many republicans call him a socialist and hate him so much when most of his policies are copied from Republicans.Bail outs, deficit spending,Romneycare,war on terror,Bush's defense sectary and fed chairman, McCain amnesty etc
I'm trying to think of a bill, a large bill like Health Care, that Republicans passed without a single Democrat vote. Funny, I can't recall any. So maybe he's not just like Republicans. And here you are reduced to defending a chump. A chump even to his own party.
Also, the Democrats using reconciliation (simple majority vote) to ram through a trillion dollar entitlement. The only times the Republicans have used the reconciliation procedure were to pass tax cuts. Obama was even on record as a Senator saying the reconciliation process should 'NEVER' be used for passing major pieces of legislation. Pay back time - Nov. 2nd!!!!!
Obama came off looking like a total dink on the John Stewart show. He probably added Stewart to his enemies list. lol
Obamacare = 95 % copy of Romney care Who is Romney ?The guy who came in 2nd place for the 2008 GOP nomination and the leading candidate for the 2012 GOP nomination
All Romney would have to do is say the law in MA hasn't worked, and there would be no implications whatsoever with nationwide voters. MA voters would be pissed, but the Republicans are unlikely to win MA in 2012 anyways, so really no big deal. Obama would never admit to something like that. His ego and sheer arrogance would never allow it. Romney could simply point out that he tried something very similar to Obamacare in MA, and it's not working, and now Obama wants to enact this type of healthcare on the 'ENTIRE COUNTRY'. That message would resonate big time with voters, and destroy Obama. In addition to that, we'll still have record unemployment and economic turmoil in 2012, which will fall directly on Obama!!! Also, on a side note, the U.S. Supreme Court would end up ruling on the constitutionality of Obamacare in mid. to late 2012. A ruling that says Obamacare is unconstitutional right before the elections will absolutely destroy Obama and the Democrats. Since the U.S. Supreme Court has a 5-4 conservative majority, I can't wait for that ruling. I'll bring the popcorn!!!!! lol
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Unfortunately for you and other libtards, Tuesday will be a referendum on Obama and the democraps, NOT Romney.