Yves here. I don’t mean to be mean to Tom Neuburger, but this post gives the strong impression of overexposure to PMC/blue cities types.
First, I don’t even remotely see Stewart as sincere. He comes off as a sometimes smarmy performer. By contrast, Sanders has all the charm of your cranky Jewish uncle telling you to take your feet off the coffee table. The reason Sanders is popular is that he is finger-wagging on behalf of your and the general good. And he’s acted on his beliefs for decades, staring with being a civil rights protestor in college.
Second, Stewart was a Boomer fixture. I question whether he has any pull with the under 40 crowd. By contrast, Sanders enjoyed very strong support from young people.
I’d bet on Joe Rogan over Stewart in terms of followership, but Rogan has been so often (and usually unfairly) criticized that he’d be too polarizing to get very far.
The one bit of good news is I don’t see the promotion of Oprah or Michelle that we did in past election cycles.
I have no doubt readers will pile on.
By Thomas Neuburger. Originally published at God’s Spies
His Sanders-authenticity would draw Sanders-style crowds and make him a welcome bane to both parties’ establishments.
Bernie Sanders speaks to 10,000 people in Wisconsin, July 2015.
I’m serious about suggesting that Jon Stewart run for president. Listen to the following clip. I’m not posting this encounter because of its topic, though gender dysphoria is truly serious. I’m posting it because of Stewart’s method and approach.
He cuts through BS faster and better than anyone else in his business. He’s sharp, he’s fast on his feet, and he’s serious. Note his verbal sparring, his deft undercutting, the surprise but modulated pivots to accusations of lying.
He’d not only do this to Republicans running against him. He’d do the same to Democrats who got in the way of doing right for America. Faux-President Manchin, would get creamed, not coddled and cultivated. Schumer and his despicable cave, for example, to the Senate Parliamentarian on drug price reform would be treated the same. Stewart, through his career, has been an equal opportunity offender.
The arguments for:
- He has Sanders-authenticity, the real thing, not the fake-authentic variety manufactured by PR firms.
- He’s more serious about his goals than he is about his career.
- He would inspire a Sanders-like following (note the image above, from 2015).
- He’s as good as we would get against Trump on the debate stage.
The arguments against:
- The Democratic establishment would work to defeat him at every turn. The antidote to that would be the Sanders-style wind at his back. Finally, someone on the left for the real uprising to hook to.
- He appears not to want to.
Ummm…No thank you
— Jon Stewart (@jonstewart) July 9, 2022
Nevertheless, I can’t think of a candidate I’d vote more enthusiastically for than Jon Stewart. After all, the best of this crowd is getting us nowhere.
We need a principled disruptor, Sanders-style. Can you think of anyone better fit for the role? Neither can I.
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Hi Yves – you are probably right that the under 40 crowd is unaware, but his appeal was definitely more Gen X than Boomer (so even fewer potential voters I guess!). His ability to cut through the BS during the Bush years was pretty cathartic viewing at the time. I’m talking about The Daily Show here, not his RomCom phase (thank goodness that didn’t work out!)
I don’t pay much attention except for when he pops up in the news here and there (again, supporting your point), but I do think he’s trying to make things happen in his own way – building awareness, making those in power uncomfortable, and advocating for things that are clearly right (e.g., 9/11 first responder care). Whether that discomfort he causes the PMC actually has an impact on anything, who knows.
Agreed. My mom who was born in the 1950s thought he was smarmy, too, while people who were in their 20s and 30s in the 00s were his base, and in the 90s he was promoted as one of the voices of the MTV generation.
Also agree with Yves that he let his profile fall pretty low since then, and in fact with media fragmentation it would be very hard for anyone to get that kind of exposure today.
Cabinet nominees?
Trevor Noah for Sec of State, may be a stretch for older voters asking Trevor who?
Rob Riggle for SecDef, only one with a shred of life credibility for the lackluster ream
Colbert for, well, something, maybe Press Secretary
John Oliver for some UN position
Cramer for punching bag and blame deflectee
Samantha Bee, HUD? ugh, forgeddaboutit
That dog won’t hunt.
It may not hunt, but it’ll give awards to Ukrainian Nazis at Disneyworld.
Oh, and to say nothing of the imbecilic anti-politics of his 2010 “March For Sanity” schtick.
I went to that ! Welllll, we wanted to see DC anyway. But the crowds were incredible. The journey on the subway from Falls Church to downtown was as crowded as any Mumbai local, the crushed crowd was in good humor, passing liquor and weed around like any football fan crush. Mostly young, in their 20s I’d say.
The actual rally. Effing crap. I wrote him off at that moment.
100% the nafta democrats are kaput! JIMMY DORE IN 24.
Esteemed Yves Smith. No. John Stewart is no replacement for the comic-liberationist Pat Paulsen.
Also, if one lived through the Reagan Era, one doesn’t want more of such entertainment.
I will, though, put in a good word for Lady Bunny, whose politics are quite left and genuinely left.
A taste of the Bunny Administration:
— Hilton Als, “Lady Bunny, a Creator of Wigstock, Has a New Show,” The New Yorker, August 26, 2016
Mom and I used to watch the Smothers Brothers religiously. I mean, it was our Sunday evening TV ritual.
Pat Paulsen may have been a comedian, but, oh my goodness. That man was perceptive!
Miss ya, Pat!
AS
a dead Pat Paulsen would be a better president than any of the current live alternatives…
I remember one of Pat Paulsen’s campaign statements:
“I’ved upped my standards, now up yours.”
Many years ago Pat Paulsen had a winery in Sonoma County while Tom Smothers had a different local winery.
Paulsen autographed a couple of bottles of his wine for me at a local supermarket.
Truly a man of the people.
I was in high school then and thought that the Smothers Comedy Brothers Hour was about as cool as could be. At that time, there was a schtick that Johnny Carson and others of his ilk would sometimes pull. At the end of his opening monologue, Johnny would mention that ‘so-and-so’ would be a guest tonight; also, ‘so-and-so’, as well as ‘so’. Later, when he was talking to one of the guests, somebody famous who hadn’t been mentioned earlier would come waltzing through the curtain from backstage and the audience would go nuts in recognition. “Surprise, surprise.” Well, that remarkable night on the Smothers Brothers, at an opportune moment, Pat Paulsen came out from the back, smiling and waving to the crowd, accepting their adulation, except — he was met with silence and, basically, ‘huh?’ because nobody had any idea who he was. One of the funniest things I’ve ever seen — some 55 years ago. OK, boomer. :-)
Hmmm… Electing a comedian who has no political experience, but who used to have a TV show that made fun of politicians in a very mild way?
Sure, that worked out really well for Ukraine. Let’s try it here.
I think that you spelt out what most people would be thinking. But there is one thing that I have to know. Can Jon Stewart play the piano? I think that what America needs is a good President. A serious person. One who is under 60 years of age. One who has been in combat so knows what war is all about. One who has solid experience in running a major business or with administration. Unfortunately those very factors are ones that would disqualify a person being nominated by the present political/media establishment.
As an American under 60 years of age, we do not care about age per se, just the generational wealth/opportunity gap. A traitor to their age cohort would be very welcome, a la Sanders.
Last good musician this country had in the White House? Wait for it …
… Zachary Taylor.
Yup, it’s been that long.
Let’s not overlook how much Stephen Colbert is ingratiating himself with Democrat politicians. He has “run” before. He is more likely our Volodymyr. I see Colbert as a natural authoritarian when nothing else will satisfy his ego.
Jon Stewart appears to support the neocon agenda. Stewart devoted a show to platforming arch neocon Anne Applebaum. He has also hosted Bill Kristol, etc….
“The Problem With Jon Stewart @TheProblem
·
Jan 18
On this week’s podcast, we’re talking to journalist @anneapplebaum about how the Far Right is driving a global comeback for autocracy, just how endangered democracy really is, and what we can do about it.
Listen to the full episode now on @ApplePodcasts http://theproblem.link/AnneApplebaum”
Previously, he countenanced Hillary Clinton’s hour of lies about…everything….nodded in agreement as they rattled off for an hour..
Nov 17, 2022
On this week’s podcast, @JonStewart asks Secretaries @HillaryClinton and @CondoleezzaRice how necessary or effective American military intervention is in international conflicts. The full episode comes out tomorrow on @ApplePodcasts and YouTube.
Yes. If John Stewart is Neuburger’s ideal candidate, then he (Neuburger) deserves all the ridicule we can throw at him.
The clip turns me off completely. Stewart has always been good at making hapless right-wingers look foolish. But the last thing we need is another condescending liberal showing how superior they are to those representatives the deplorables are stupid enough to vote for. Even on this issue the evidence is no where near as one-sided as he haughtily implies, and the politics is absolutely polarizing. I know Neuburger says he didn’t choose this clip for the issue; so I assume its value is in showing Stewarts cool command of the “facts” vs. “disinformation.” All I see is another smirking liberal demonstrating disdain for an inferior. I haven’t seen Stewart’s show, though I have seen clips of it. Based on your comments, the clips I’ve seen, and Stewart’s past performance, I seriously doubt he would be an “equal opportunity offender.”
Colbert had some truly great moments back in the day, most notably his savaging of Bush as his “stenographers” to their faces in 2006. He original “truthiness” routine on Stewart’s show was also a classic. Now he is just a running dog lackey for the liberal establishment. Has Stewart demonstrated that he would be any better?
Let me know when he has Aaron Mate on his show to discuss the Ukrainian war – or Russiagate.
Copy that.
Amen.
But that other president was immediately stopped from implementing his campaign agenda by a military/political bureaucracy, and forced to lead the slaughter of his people and destruction of their country.
oh wait…
Court jesters run the risk of being caught up in court gestures, should they assume the position.
We’ve worshiped wherewithal, but you sense a change is coming where money isn’t all that in terms of who we admire, and why not a comedian, it worked for the Ukraine.
Yves is right right on all her points, this is so damned pathetic. Dems have no bench and the left is lost and thirsty for a celebrity savior.
I don’t think anyone under 30 even knows who john stewart is.
Even if stewart won, the deep-state would spin him like a top.
They have a bench. It’s just Jeffries, Buttigieg, Newsome, and so forth are shaped in the zeitgeist by 10 second clips on cable or nightly news but the Internet. They are as loathsome as the Pelosi, Biden, Clyburn etc, but they don’t enjoy protection. The old guard just has sycophants around them, so they don’t change strategies. Hillary was doing her fake southern accent in 2016 at certain venues as if they plant go around because she can pull garbage she pulled in the 80’s.
Oy vey…
if we are looking for TV personalities, how old is Phil Donahue (not that anyone would remember him)?
I’ll be writing in Putin.
Jon is a smart comic* but not as smart as his collective of writers. Some of the best episodes of ‘The Problem with Jon Stewart’ have been of Jon sitting around a table with his writers talking about issues. When Jon goes on air we’re hearing some consensus from those conversations. The writers make each other smarter and sharper. Two of the sharpest (IMO) are black men and three more are women. Jon’s stump speeches written by that group would be fantastic.
Smart and insightful would get my vote but not the rest of my family. Smart seems to be off-putting to most of the middle of the country. Bernie had to dumb down his speeches and hammer home the points he wanted his audience to focus on with repetition. I don’t see Jon doing that, his audiences are like him – intellectually quick on the uptake. They’re outliers, noticeably distant from the middle. Recall the junior shrubbery’s popularity and why. The middle are looking for candidates who think and talk like they do, finding certainty in their own reflection and they’re the majority at the polls. A smart Jon Stewart would have to get a lot dumber if he threw his hat in the ring and he would be exposed for doing so immediately. ‘Jon is talking down to us’.
See KLG comment. I couldn’t agree more and in just four words.
*Comics tend to smarter than your average Yogi.
The writers make each other smarter and sharper. Two of the sharpest (IMO) are black men and three more are women
What I remember most about Jon are first- he’s always been quietly racist and sexist. After he left the Daily Show, a number of people who no longer dependes on his good will for their paychecks were pretty public about that. Second, he literally drools over the Clinton’s. Sounds like a great Dem candidate to me!
He’s a performer. Flattery is what he requires. Bill Clinton builds loyalty by flattering people who need reassurance. Robert Reich had his story on Bill taking care of him when he was seasick. It went beyond checking on a person. Bill was collecting.
Stewart worshipped Saint McCain who is largely responsible for making the Daily Show a mainstream hit. Even at the height of Stewart roasting Republicans, he would roll out the red carpet for an obvious monster. I figure the Clintons just introduced him to famous friends, and he swooned. Larry David was disinvited from Obama’s self thrown birthday bash. I figure it’s because flattery and bright lights dont work on David, so he was cut from the list.
If the writers were near perfect human beings in denial of their foibles, they would be considerably less insightful of the human condition, starting with their own. I know a lot of deniers and zero near perfect humans. I know a quite a few people full up to the gills with their rightness and virtue and try to avoid their company. Doubt makes for a more interesting conversation.
Indeed,
We need to remember his interview with Hillary and Condolezza. Very smarmy…
I think this is the problem with Stewart, running an angry man campaign. One, he isn’t, and two, he wouldn’t have his writers. Stewart has had regrets about his March in the mid 00’s. It was nice to see him destroy Crossfire, but his suggestion divides weren’t real was a problem. Obviously Begala and Tucker are the same kind of trash, so they don’t have actual conflicts.
Stewart is a bright fellow, but he’s not close to grasping scales of issues.
Jon Stewart is the exactly what the Dem Party needs right now – to kill it completely dead. Watch his slavish interview with Condolezza Rice and Hillary Clinton to see what a war-mongering, establishment azzhole he has become.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xutIA4HzGqA
Pete Buddyjudge as Secretary of Transportation is funnier than Stewart was on The Daily Show. Any respect I had for Tom Neuberger – and there wasn’t much to begin with – is gone. Can you just say “Tom Neuberger” in the headline of any post with his thoughts in it. I won’t waste any time going near it.
Excellent point. Stewart is bogus and detestable. Last time I saw the Daily Shiw, Christine Amanpour was his guest and they were both rooting for a no-fly zone over Syria.
Never watched Comedy Central again.
This might’ve been the first Tom Neuburger post I’d not “liked,” and was the 3rd poster to remind Thomas:
-Jon SCREAMING right-wing, Sinophobe BS on Colbert (to end zero COVID for Apple; to kill a million sero-naive Chinese workers, for yuppie’s iPhone 14?)
-Jon’s mysteriously helping to THROW the 2010 midterms (again with Colbert!) By conning smug, sneeringly brainwashed, entitled petit bourgeois, ofay “hipsters.”
-Jon’s Disneyland junket with tattooed Azov Battalion & Right Sektor Nazis.
-Hills & Chelsea… I’d assumed, that OTHER Republican Party would be running Kim Kardashian (but WAS only kidding, when I’d posted it, here?)
-There’s altogether TOO many wealthy sneering, soulless hipsters on Apple TV!
Jon’s the stereotypical NPD/BPD Smug, entitled churl we picture, when we picture “Democrats”
I’ve long held that Democrats have replaced the actual Clinton administration with the West Wing in their memories. Stewart would fit right in with that. And as Lexx pointed out, the Stewart everyone sees is a product of a writer group. A presidential administration is not run by a writer group, so any actual Stewart administration would have him fully surrounded by Blob types.
But whatever. Perhaps what deserve is a dictatorship of the TV commentariat.
Well, Al Franken made senator, so, hey, why not?
This is all so pathetic. Victoria Nuland really really wants to exterminate civilization in its present form, and this comes up. I’m sorry, but, in order to save everybody, we may have to consider four more years of Trump, before he dies. And he’s a better comedian than Stewart.
Al Franken might be (for multiple reasons) why he would not. Who knows what skeletons might come out of the closet? Plus he isn’t even half as clever as Franken so even if he is clean as clean he really couldn’t match Franken politically and in a way that flyover states might actually listen to. Big fat no.
Al Franken was actually a pretty competent politician and I’d say, much more creative a comic than smarmy Jon Stewart.
How about a Stewart/ Bill Maher ticket? That would really get things stirred up!
We are well beyond the point of abdicating power to Idjuts. No more license, no more consent.
I vote for General Strike, leader of the Quiet Quitter militia. Starve the beast on every front possible.
Do little, with less, locally. El Know!
Now if George Carlin was still around…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-54c0IdxZWc (4:52 mins) – some language.
Jon deliberately left his show just as the Sanders insurgency was gaining momentum. I thought it was common knowledge it was to not upset the applecart of his good friends at the DNC. Quite a sheepdog in his own way. I’ll pass on one more insincere 1%er, thanks.
Exactly. Stewart gave up any moral high ground with his woke nonsense that his writers are enamored with pushing. He is a husk of what he once was. Pass.
Just when I thought we’d plumbed the depths of stupid…comes this.
And some of you still believe we can get relief top-down.
Dreamers.
Really struck by how articles like these seem to presume the job of president-ing is just getting up and making speeches. When in fact it’s an executive job of overseeing a giant administrative bureaucracy and also of persuasion, maneuvering, etc with members of Congress.
That takes experience. In my lifetime, what I’ve seen is, the most effective presidents, whether or not we like what they effectively achieved, have been former governors, precisely because they have prior experience president-ing on a smaller scale. Carter, Reagan, Clinton, Bush II all effected major changes, most of which were awful, I agree, but they did something. Bush 1, Obama, Trump — it seems to me they were more holding pattern presidents, though Obama did achieve the final destruction of left opposition in the country. It always seemed to me, though, that he governed as if he were elected the highest middle manager in the country. Now Biden, who said nothing will fundamentally change — though his biggest efficacy may turn out to be WWIII. (Exception to the former gov idea being LBJ, who also effected major change but had such long experience in Congress.)
This is the problem with the Dems giving up on the campaign-in-50 states strategy and the tremendous loss of state houses they experienced during the Obama years. They have no array of governors, and neither CA and NY govs will ever win flyover, not these days.
A comedian, a businessman who imagines the role as CEO who can order anything to happen, or a low-level pol who owes everyone everything while no one owes him/her anything — these are destined to be nothing but puppets. Zelensky being one example. Harris and Buttigieg would be two others.
This is not politics like you mean it. This is the epitome of politics as performance.
Yes (the US Presidency requires serious Executive experience), But…
IMO, the Reagan & GWBush administrations were effective *not* because of the executive abilities & experience of the President, but really quite the opposite: they both focused on the ceremonial & Bully Pulpit role, and left the actual process of running the government to others. (I never figured out who was really in charge under Reagan, but Dick Cheney obviously ran the country 2001-2008).
The GOP was able to do that because it really was a Cabal: a group of Zillionaires funded the Party Machinery, and were thus able to rent the loyalty of the candidates *and* the actual Managers.
It’s harder for the Democrats to do this, because they’re a fractious coalition of groups, with little National Party Machinery and even less long-term investment. Every four years, the Democratic Party waits breathlessly for JFK to rise from the grave and lead them to victory/heaven. Beto O’Rourke was supposed to fill that role in 2020, but – surprise! – it didn’t work. And surprise: it won’t work for Jon Stewart either.
Jon Stewart will earn the votes of financially comfortable white & Jewish urban Democrats whose highest priority is “owning the Cons”. He’ll get a lot more press than votes.
> Zelensky being one example
“In this house, we do comedy.”
Don’t forget that Stewart recently showed support for the Azov brigade and is clueless about Ukraine and the reasons for the SMO. He is another Hollywood Russophobe. He was supportive of Dave Chappelle but on matters related to the nation he is a non entity.
Bernie lacks the fortitude to walk the walk that he talks about, and is also clueless about foreign policy- but perhaps he also is a cynical supporter of the defense industry given that Vermont is home to some of the largest government contractors- e.g. General Dynamics, Raytheon, Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Pratt & Whitney and others.
> clueless about foreign policy
For anybody who missed it, Sanders’ foreign policy advisor, Matt Duss, is… Ukrainian. It’s like a horror movie!
I’ll stick with Gloria La Riva for the time being, thanks very much.
As much as I liked Stewart on the Daily Show, please no more entertainers and carnival barkers in politics. We could use some actual statesmen and stateswomen with actual governing experience running for office.
Since those seem to be in short supply in the US, perhaps we could borrow some from Russia.
Stewart used to fire back with that argument in the early days whenever somebody suggested he should run for office (i.e., if a comedian like him is outperforming elected officials, then they need to lift their game). It sounds like his opinion on that hasn’t changed.
I haven’t watched him in a long time and I suspect he’s gone downhill a lot (Colbert certainly has, and he was a Stewart protege originally). He used to be good at calling out hypocrisy in the early shows.
> He used to be good at calling out hypocrisy
Low-hanging fruit. Very easy to be good at this.
Is it that the US has fallen into such political decrepitude that a country of 330 million cannot cannot bring to the fore political leadership that is informed, intelligent, administratively competent, and able to stir public awareness, civic imagination, and electoral enthusiasm? The short answer: yes, apparently.
Neoliberalism as economic doctrine has taken its toll in lives, livelihoods, and living. As a philosophy, it lays the groundworks for such deadly determinism to contining mowing down all before it with no popular movement or political leadership up to the task of overturning it. That there is even a discussion of Jon Stewart’s presidential prospects is among the clear signs of political surrender to its predations.
IMHO the corruption at the national level is so endemic that there is no longer any hope at that level.
In Minnesota we tend to be very community oriented and that comes across with our leaders. What’s really fascinating, however, is that the really good ones left national politics and returned to lead in the state with very good results.
People like Governor (former Senator) Dayton, Governor (former Representative) Walz, and Attorney General (former Representative) Ellison all fled national politics and are very effective and appreciated back home.
It appears to me that DC is currently not a place for honest and competent people. It all seems a quite vacuous and slimy place.
> the really good ones left national politics and returned to lead in the state with very good results.
Hmm. Is this something particular to Minnesota? Or can you think of other examples?
Also from the Upper Midwest: Tom Barrett served 10 years in the US House, then went home to Wisconsin where he did four terms as mayor of Milwaukee, resigning early in his fifth to become Brandon’s ambassador to Luxembourg.
I’m not American and have no idea who Jon Stewart is, but at least he has what I regard as the leading qualification for President, Prime Minister or Mayor or whatever – he doesn’t want the job! Who better to entrust with power than someone who doesn’t want it and would rather be doing something else?
This country needs a wholesale cleanup of politicians but it’s next to impossible to accomplish. The elite have a stranglehold on the politics and policies. The war machine and the sillycon cabal along with the banksters are instrumental in making sure that money plays a big role. The medical-drug complex makes sure that looting is an everyday occurrence. We are a world wide killing and looting machine intent on destroying this planet. It’s foolish to think another President will set things right.
Stewart is a smarmy douchebag in that interview and always has been.
This clip is perfect because the GOP is going to run in ‘24 on protecting children from being groomed, sexualized, and brainwashed by “critical” and “woke” self-appointed “experts” just like Stewart’s writers relied upon.
Neuberger is nothing but a lightweight purveyor of conventional liberal establishment Republican-lite views.
No offense, but you cannot vote for a President and expect any change. You’d have to vote for Prez and veep, AND 535, a fresh broom, put another way, a pox on both your houses.
My point? Ain’t gonna happen.
Stewart looks terrible.
Stewart strikes me as thinking he’s the smartest man alive & doesn’t tolerate ppl he considers not up to his level. So in a campaign when he would have to talk to truck driving redneck trailer trash, he just wouldn’t, he would snub his nose at them as if they were below him.
I have been waiting for him to do the Dennis Miller metamorphosis. DM was a staunch liberal/progressive in the 90s and on his HBO show at that time. Then all of a sudden in the 2000s DM is on Fox News preaching their message.
What he will do is talk about “we need to fix this problem” & just when it’s time to step up & do something, he backs out.
No. No. And No. Not another comedian in politics. He’ll get us all killed if we don’t die already because of Zelenskyy.
> Not another comedian in politics. He’ll get us all killed if we don’t die already because of Zelenskyy
Yikes. I’m sure that everybody in the Blue Bubble thinks Zelensky and Stewart being comedians is a very good thing, and that we need a Zelensky.
Jimmy Dore provides rebuttal
What Happened To Jon Stewart (17:07)