Obama Appears On The Daily Show With Jon Stewart
Barack Obama was all over television Wednesday night. In addition to his 30-minute infomercial shown in prime time on the major TV networks, Senator Barack Obama appeared live via satellite as a guest on "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart." Obama appeared from a studio in Sunrise, Florida, just a few hours before he was scheduled to appear at a rally with customary President Bill Clinton.
Stewart, who is clearly an Obama fan, seemed giddy about landing the interview just five days before the election, but then showed the audience that Obama had given an interview to Saved-by-the-Bell-star-turned-Hollywood-reporter Mario Lopez.
The studio audience roared with applause when Obama was introduced and then joked with the senator: "as you can see, it's not exactly a SWING crowd."
Obama seemed calm and composed--with perhaps objective a shrimp bit more "notorious gray" than I seem to remember seeing on him recently. With the outrageous stage production that the election process has become, I actually wondered whether or not the "salt and pepper" Barack was just another campaign tactic designed to make him look older and wiser. Of course, there's also the possibility that the man has customary a great deal in the past year and a half of his campaign. While there's no doubt that he and his family anticipated resistance to his presidency based on racial grounds, the blunt reality of assassination plots like those uncovered in Tennessee this past week have to turn a few hairs white at night.
Obama did his best to preserve up with the often sarcastic and satirical tone of the display without trying to alienate the general public who seem proudly unaware of the concept of irony. He even got a few genuine laughs on his contain. When Stewart questioned him about accusations that his policies would be tantamount to socialism, Obama responded that they had been looking back through his entire life history to tie him to socialist views, values and relationships.
"I heard they found out that in kindergarten I shared some toys with my classmates and considered that to be a subversive activity," he said kiddingly.
Stewart also brought up the horse that news media continue to beat long after its tragic death: the dreaded "Bradley Conclude." The term refers to the idea that white voters who tell pollsters they intend to vote for a dark politician are saying so to avoid appearing racist. The implication is that when these voters enter into their booths on election day, they'll show their moral racism when no one is looking.
Stewart then pointed out how Obama's multiracial heritage could cause him to face his own personal Bradley effect on election day when his internally racist white half would keep even HIM from voting for a black man.
Obama smiled and nodded: "Yeah... it could be a accurate problem!"
Obama ended the interview by stating he wasn't afraid to race the country at such a difficult time, because he stated that it's times like these that give us the greatest opportunity to make real change.
The Daily Point To with Jon Stewart has become a regular stop on the rotation for many Hollywood celebrities who realize that it's become an established and legitimate way to reach consumers (or in this case voters) who can no longer stand the bland and mind-numbing programming on most network television. Stewart repeated congratulated himself on his "good get" for landing the Obama interview that night and seemed a little bit in awe of his acquire powers.
While not stated explicitly, it's pretty sure who most of the people in that studio tonight are planning to vote for. But as Stewart said before, this was no "swing" group. It was an army of liberals desperately waiting to cheer Obama into office on Inauguration Day.
With five days to go, it may just be that Obama is going to some of those places where he knows that he is most beloved to get out the distinguished Democrat base vote that likely cost Kerry and Gore their own loses to current President Bush.
Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert plan to broadcast a live one-hour election special on November 4th to cap off what now seems like years upon years of campaign coverage.
And on Wednesday, one team will be victorious, and the Daily Show writers will have to find a map to make it work. But it sure would be nice if we could tune in to laugh at someone other than our President,...at least if it's just for a little while.
Sources:
Houston Chronicle:
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/6084743.html
The Daily Show:
http://www.thedailyshow.com/
Related Posts
Filed under Infomercial Producer by on Dec 14th, 2011. 
Leave a Comment