Stewart Dispels Rumor of White House Run

[sugapablo]

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/P/PEOPLE_STEWART_COLBERT?SITE=PAPIT&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=home.htm

NEW YORK (AP) -- Those people wearing "Stewart/Colbert '08" T-shirts can stop hoping - Comedy Central's fake news stars have no intention of making a run for the White House.

Jon Stewart said the T-shirts promoting him and Stephen Colbert "are a real sign of how sad people are" with the state of affairs in the country.

"Nothing says 'I am ashamed of you my government' more than 'Stewart/Colbert '08,' Stewart told an audience Sunday at the New Yorker Festival. He was interviewed by the magazine's editor, David Remnick.

Stewart, who recently hosted Pakistan's president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, on "The Daily Show," said he's been trying to get top Bush administration officials to appear. "We have requests in there to everyone including Barney," Stewart said. "Only Barney replies." Barney is the president's Scottish terrier.

[station agent]

1. I'm more of an Olbermann for President kinda guy

Stewart has a much more important job.

[calimary]

4. Well, that part of it is certainly a fair statement. Stewart DOES have

a more important job to do.

And the very fact that he's accepted that mantle is great for all of us on a much more profound scale. He's reached a point in the public perception - and on the national political scene - where he's listened to. People listen to him and pay attention to him. What he says gets noticed and makes sense. And even while not a political figure per se, he's got a HUGE constituency. There wouldn't be any such items as Stewart/Colbert '08 t-shirts, nor the point he found himself making about those t-shirts, if there WEREN'T a serious discontent (to put it mildly) with the political establishment in this country. True, it might well be a gag. How many t-shirts have we seen coming and going with various showbiz names attached to elections, but they've all been flat-out gags and spoofs. And everybody knew that. And said so. Even those involved, when reacting to them would say so. Not the case here.

Oh yes, and as to the first premise in your post - Olbermann for president - well, we sure could do a HELLUVA lot worse than that, couldn't we? That's one campaign I could get behind, too.

However, I think Olbermann would serve us all better (or maybe his network bosses would) if they had him shorten his commentaries EVER SO SLIGHTLY so they could be run on the "NBC Nightly News" at the end of every week. He could present a shortened version - the single version, as it were, for us old vinyl enthusiasts, and save the album version of each one for "Countdown."

You'll notice, though, that Jon Stewart is presently in the process of being elevated in the national consciousness to greater and greater serious credibility than a mere TV satire host on a network like Comedy Central might ordinarily deserve. His show's already got the actual Peabody Awards luster that bill o'reilly can only lie and misrepresent about having (and as far as I can tell, same goes for the entire Pox "news" channel). And I saw a promo last night, either on CNN or MSNBC (the only two networks between which I was switching back and forth), that showed the faces of Cronkite, Brokaw, and Jennings, AND Stewart, in succession - in a promo about TV anchors of SERIOUS national gravitas. So NOW, they're lumping Jon Stewart with those luminaries in the broadcast journalism stratosphere. PERCEPTION. PERCEPTION that Jon Stewart stands among those news giants as a peer. How 'bout that?

Pretty damned great for a parttime actor/comedian who anchors a snarky news satire show on a network like Comedy Central. It means a LOT MORE PEOPLE than we thought are taking him a LOT MORE SERIOUSLY than we realized.

And that is a VERY good thing. VERY good indeed.

[Tuttle]

2. "only Barney repiles..."

heh, heh

Tut-tut

[Bigmack]

3. Nonsense!!!!

Nothing says 'I am ashamed of you my government' more than Bush-Cheney.

We've had a clown in office since 2000, why not try a comedian?

Jon is certainly smarter than the current bozos in DC, and his presidential press conferences might cause people to laugh, but for different reasons than Dumbya's.

[Justyce]

5. And the GOP breathes a collective sigh of relief, no doubt. They

definitely seem to feel threated by Stewart/Colbert....

[Tesla]

6. Maybe if Robin Williams new movie is a hit

we can get him to reconsider!

[damntexdem]

7. OK:

"Colbert/Stewart in 08!"