Kerry on The Daily Show

Thu Aug 26 2004

I just caught John Kerry’s Tuesday night appearance on The Daily Show on my TiVo yesterday, and while I’m still not super-enthused about his candidacy I didn’t come away half as disappointed as Slate columnist Dana Stevens who slammed the Democratic senator from Massachusetts for not being entertaining enough.

Kerry seemed unclear on the concept that he was there precisely to poke fun at the recirculated sound bites of the talking-head circuit…All he had to do was shoulder his rocket launcher…and take aim at the received wisdom that has kept the focus of this campaign exactly where the Bush camp wants it to be: on who did what in a war we lost 30 years ago, rather than what to do next in the war we’re losing right now.

Instead, Kerry ignored every opening Stewart gave him, preferring to dust off rhetoric that’s become familiar even to casual followers of his campaign: “You don’t go to war because you want to. You go to war because you have to.” That was a good line at the convention, but baby, the convention was a month ago! This is Jon Stewart, the king of politically savvy late-night television. You need new A-list material. Get someone on it.

John Kerry is a serious man who (unlike the man he’s looking to replace) is not prone to glibness or inclined to crack jokes when there are serious issues to discuss. The idea that politics is show-business, that the electorate needs to be entertained to keep them engaged, is hopelessly cynical and plays right into the Republican style of campaigning-as-character assassination.

I’m not so naïve or idealistic as to think that Americans are yet capable of having an actual dialogue about the issues, but to expect that John Kerry show up on Jon Stewart’s program and suddenly be as electrifying a personality as Bill Clinton is just stupid. It’s like what Stevens is saying here is that she doesn’t care who the candidate is, she’s just looking for media savvy. That’s not Kerry at all. John Kerry has gravitas, war hero cred and a lifetime of public service under his belt, but he’ll never be John Kennedy or even Bill Clinton. And that’s okay.

One thing that definitely may have tripped Kerry up, which trips up many of Stewart’s guests, is that since The Daily Show lives in a bizarre nether-realm between legitimate journalism, satiric comedy and late-night talk, how do you present yourself? Are you part of the show, all entertainment? Or do you talk about issues and risk looking like a total tool?

If you don’t have cable, didn’t manage to catch any of the million Daily Show repeats yesterday or didn’t tape or TiVo it, then one of two things must be true:

  1. You’re a Republican spy, fascist!
  2. You might be interested in viewing this QuickTime version of Jon Stewart’s interview with Mr. Kerry on Waxy.org. (Via BoingBoing.)