Leaving no hipster unturned,President Obama took his campaign message to the popular “Daily Show” Wednesday, where host Jon Stewart addressed him as “dude” and Obama defended his progress.
“This is a nice set,” Obama said of Comedy Central’s neo-Grecian setup at the Harman Center for the Arts. “It reminds me of the convention.”
Stewart replied, “We actually bought it. It was in a warehouse.”
The laughs, however, were few — although the Washington audience was enthusiastic. Obama, hoping to encourage the often-jaded youths in Stewart’s audience to vote, was the show’s only guest for the full half-hour.
“When we promised during the campaign ‘change you can believe in,’ it wasn’t change you can believe in in 18 months,” Obama said.
Stewart, in town with Comedy Central satirist Stephen Colbert for this weekend’s Rally to Restore Sanity/March to Keep Fear Alive, questioned Obama closely about his embrace of “timid” policies like health care reform after the grand promises of the 2008 campaign.
Obama, taking umbrage, called health care reform “as significant a piece of legislation as we have seen in this country’s history.”
He also said his administration has been uncommonly active, saying “from a historical perspective, [it] ranks up there with any 18 months in our history.”
The president cited a familiar list of accomplishments, including stabilizing the economy, financial reform and health care reform.
“The point was [that] we put a framework in place,” Obama said.
Stewart’s show in recent years has become an important stop for politicians, in addition to the standard late-night parade of actors, authors and musicians.
The way Stewart uses acerbic wit to frame current events increasingly shapes popular perceptions about public policy.
He has been critical of Obama for falling short of expectations — a theme he revisited during their interview.
Stewart noted that during the campaign, Obama often said that you can’t get new results with the same old faces — then he hired longtime Washington fixture Larry Summers to be a top economic adviser.
“Heckuva job?” Obama asked. Replied Stewart, “You don’t want to use that phrase, dude.”
The president went on to defend the contributions of Summers, who recently left the administration, in stabilizing the economy.
He expressed frustration with Stewart’s proxy message from disappointed liberal supporters, saying change is incremental but he has made a strong start.
“It’s a work in progress, it’s just not going to happen overnight,” Obama said.
Obama said two things he hopes to change are rules in Congress pertaining to the use of the filibuster, a debating tactic both parties have used to stall action on controversial legislation.
While Democrats made ample use of the filibuster during the Bush administration, Obama said its overuse by Republicans lately “makes it very difficult for us to move forward.”
The president also complained about the way congressional district boundaries are drawn, saying there are too many safe districts for both parties, and a corresponding increase in polarization.
