The President has made no secret of his love of a fight. He’s been heard to council his party faithful to bring a gun to a challenger’s knife fight and when punched, he suggests hitting back twice as hard. But that’s as it relates to political foes, not silver-tongued comics with a studio audience.
I felt mildly sorry for President Obama as he visited the set of the Daily Show Wednesday night. Not because I support him or his failed policies as they plummet in the polls. This was purely a human moment. Like watching Brett Farve get booed at Lambeau Field, or a drunken co-worker singing karaoke amidst mocking laughter. They all brought it on themselves, but they seem almost incapable of realizing that it’s actually happening. The decency in me wishes I could’ve stopped it.
President Obama makes a point of staying away from Fox News as well as MSNBC on a regular basis. His White House often likes to dismiss both networks, as well as talk radio as “too kooky” to legitimize with his perceived “greatness” and “gravitas.”
His preferred stops consist of non-confrontational lifestyle and variety shows like The View, Oprah, and The Tonight Show. Certainly the White House calculation was Stewart’s “Daily Show” fit that mold. A little good-natured ribbing from a friendly liberal comic would just humanize Obama, they certainly deduced.
But Mr. Stewart isn’t just a comic, and he knows it. His “brand” has been elevated to something far more important to the chattering, Beltway class. Time Magazine’s online readership voted Stewart “the most trusted man in America” over the big three network anchors in 2009. His rally today in Washington D.C. has media and politicians panting and panicking about its meaning and lasting impact.
Stewart has been “chosen” as cool, relevant, “sane,” and most significantly – the moderate, legitimate voice in the national debate. Sounds kind of like what they used to say about a freshman Senator from Illinois, does it not?
Of course Stewart is the furthest thing from an ideologically pure moderate. His broadside swipes at President Obama’s unmet promises and “timid” leadership were uncomfortable to watch Wednesday night.
It was uncomfortable because the President of the United States was taking a voluntary scolding by a clown on a low-rated cable show. Uncomfortable, too for most informed voters who realize Stewart’s line of questions made Obama’s radical agenda sound conservative.
“You ran with such, if I may, audacity,” Stewart said. “Yet, legislatively, it has felt timid at times. I’m not sure, at times, what you want out of health care.”
It was at this moment President Obama must have realized he was in no safe environment. This wasn’t the Oprah Winfrey Show, this was Animal Kingdom and his pride had just been attacked. The fatal mistake President Obama made was to rise to the challenge.
There’s a reason anyone who’s been to a comedy club knows you don’t sit in the front row. It’s the same reason you don’t argue with Jon Stewart on his own show.
“Jon, I love your show, but this is something where, you know, I have a profound disagreement with you,” Obama said. “And I don’t want to lump you in with a lot of other pundits, but this notion that health care is timid . . . ”
The President droned on about the “greatness” of the legislation most of the country hates, yet Stewart mind-bogglingly thinks doesn’t go far enough. Then Stewart responded: “I’ll tell you what I mean, and I don’t mean to lump you in with other presidents,” Stewart said, to roaring applause and laughter from the audience.
Only a narcissist with a thin skin would try to “educate” a comic with whom he disagrees. Only a fool would try to legitimately debate a comic at all. Obama was outmatched, outwitted, and wounded. Not from the “shadowy, racist” figures in the Tea Party, but by a far-left comic with a growing sense of self-importance in the arena of serious debate.
Members of the House including Nancy Pelosi and Barney Frank learned long ago of the dangers of appearing on the turf of comics like Stephen Colbert.
“I watch it all the time, and I think, ‘Why would anybody go on there,’ Pelosi told New York Magazine back in September.
“I have done many comedic interviews, but I did not appreciate his humor,” Rep. Barney Frank told POLITICO. “I did not understand that his mission was to make every politician look ridiculous.”
Not that they need Colbert’s help.
Stewart challenged Obama to a duel of liberal bona fides against the backdrop of comedic absurdity. Obama’s mistake was to ever accept the premise of the challenge.
The President brought a knife to a gunfight.