President Obama dropped by “The Daily Show” for one final appearance before host Jon Stewart departs his post and, like us, he couldn’t believe that Jon is getting out of the spotlight before he is! “I’m issuing a new executive order”. Stewart is signing off on August 6 and the President is approaching his final year in office, so it could be a subdued farewell.
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Stewart will be replaced by South African comic Trevor Noah. “And it just so happened that over the last couple months that people are seeing some of the work that we started way back when I first came in”.
The substantive chat, with some occasional laugh lines, has been typical of the seven appearances, Obama made on the Comedy Central show. As he enters the home stretch, Obama took a victory lap on Stewart’s show, ticking off a list of achievements on health care, foreign policy and more.
“The media are a bunch of different media”. “One of the things we have to think about…is how do we join together in a common conversation around something other than the Super Bowl”.
Obama also discussed the role of the media in politics and was shocked when Stewart asked if his White House had too many talking points.
Fortunately for Obama, Stewart did not subject him to the dressing-down he received five years ago in an interview that saw the President admit his slogan should have been “yes we can – but”. “They are anti-American, anti-Israel, anti-Semitic, they sponsor terrorist organizations”, Obama said.
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Stewart shot back: “Is that the advice that you then bequeath to future President Trump?” Obama said that could be a good idea, saying it could be linked to programs like AmeriCorps, in which young people could earn scholarships to reduce the cost of higher education. “Despite the money, despite the lobbyists, it still responds”. Obama’s proclamation elicited raucous cheers from the Daily Show audience, although Obama quipped, “It’s been challenged in the courts”.
