Get Herald RSSA few weeks ago I sent in my ballot for Barack Obama with little hesitation. But now I'm gripped with a small amount of regret. It is not that I think Obama will be an ineffective and disastrous president - quite the contrary. I am concerned about the future of my favorite political satire show.
The Bush administration has done and, I suspect, still has the potential to do, a few more extremely boneheaded things. But I must credit them equally along with Jon Stewart in making "The Daily Show" the brilliant program it is today.
On the day before the 2004 election Stewart pointed out the close relationship between Bush's poor governance and his show's success. Urging everyone to vote the next day, he told the audience, "On a personal note I am a comedian who makes fun of what I believe to be the absurdities of our government. Make my life difficult. Make this next four years really (expletive) difficult for me. So that every morning all we can do is come in and go, 'Madonna is doing some Kabbalah thing - want to do that?' I'd like that."
Jon Stewart might have wanted a Kerry victory, but it is undeniable that those first four years gave the show some amazing material to work with.
Recall President Bush in 2003 landing a fighter jet on the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln with a large "Mission Accomplished" banner in the background. A year later and President Bush stood in the Rose Garden justifying his stunt. Cut back to Stewart and the audience starts laughing before he can finish commenting on the clips he has just shown.
But perhaps no moment stands out more than in 2003 when The Daily Show sliced together video clips to create a President Bush vs. Governor Bush Debate.
Sure, politicians do and should change over time, but the change was so stark it was hard to believe the words coming out of Governor Bush's mouth. The Governor's quite serious words were a punch line: "If we're an arrogant nation they will resent us ... I think one way for us to end up viewed as the ugly American is for us to go around the world saying, 'We do it this way, so should you.'"
To make Stewart's job even easier, Bush chose a wonderful Vader-like sidekick as his vice president. The first term had its chuckles about Dick Cheney relocating from undisclosed location to undisclosed location. But then in 2006 Stewart was given the golden opportunity to utter these words: "…making 78-year-old Harry Whittington the first person shot by a sitting veep since Alexander Hamilton. Hamilton, of course, was shot in a duel with Aaron Burr over issues of honor, integrity and political maneuvering. Whittington was mistaken for a bird."
I'm just not sure that Barack Obama and Joe Biden have what it takes to entertain this nation. Obama has made a few blunders, particularly regarding people clinging to guns and religion, but that's no match for the antics of the current White House occupants.
Biden provides a sliver of hope. He has a reputation, particularly amongst the media, for his oratorical gaffes. Gaffes are, of course, not as good as prematurely declaring victory after landing on an aircraft carrier or shooting a friend in the face, but in Biden's case, these slip-ups have potential.
His vice presidential campaign was mostly free of them, but near the end he whipped out a beautiful one: "Mark my words, it will not be six months before the world tests Barack Obama like they did John Kennedy ... Watch, we're going to have an international crisis, a generated crisis to test this guy." There's some potential in trying to scare the hell out of a room full of supporters at a private fundraiser.
So while I await the change brought by the new Obama administration, it is with a drop of sorrow that I will not be able to experience four more years of the same - the same amazing half-hour of political satire night after night.
Joshua Kaplan '11 is The Herald's official fake cable news correspondent
