Jon Stewart Mocks Obama "Bitter" Controversy

Last night on "The Daily Show," Jon Stewart mocked the controversy around Barack Obama's comments about "bitter" people in small town America (first published on the Huffington Post). Stewart mocked both the quality of the audio recording, comparing it to a "Peanuts" cartoon, and the controversy surrounding the comment — "So wow, out of context, almost inaudible, artfully phrased, sound bite from Barack Obama: they're gonna get that boy, they're gonna get him good!" (Full audio of the San Francisco appearance can be heard here.)

Watch as Stewart mocks the media for their endless rehashing of the comments and also ridicules Hillary Clinton for jumping on the anti-elitist bandwagon as soon as Obama's "bitter" comments were made public ("Chug! Chug! Chug! Chug! Chug! Is she running for President or pledging?"):

Comments

[kmdippenger]

"Elite" defined as the best in a category and yes, I will elect the best candidate in this category.
Obama'08

[NicoleAnonymous]

I keep watching these because I'm waiting for Jon Stewart to actually be funny but I realize now my expectations might be too high. He seems to RAISE HIS VOICE at times and be very ANIMATED because I think all those overpaid writers they hire on these shows too a class on comedy where the teacher taught them that.

But the most disappointing thing for me was reading the Financial Times yesterday and they had an article on the Presidential race where they were analyzing skits on SNL as if that is a place Americans should be going for information on candidates. I've also noticed the candidates have been on more talk shows and comedy shows than any candidates I can ever remember - Obama has been on SNL, The View, The Tyra Banks show yet he refuses to have another televised debate with Clinton because that just would have been too difficult.

[Ndw]

Dear God, you're dull, Nicole. You can wait forever, but I sense you won't see humor anywhere. It has to be in YOU first.

[NicoleAnonymous]

Actually you’re wrong. I do appreciate humor and funny shows. I have almost every Seinfeld dvd there is and also George Carlin and Richard Pryor and I just finished Steve Martin’s new book so I’ve been watching tapes of SNL with the original cast and they’re REALLY funny. I like Jim Belushi, Dan Ackroyd, Bill Murray and Gilda Radner – they’re all so talented and so funny. I’ve also watched SNL when it had Phil Hartman on it – his impersonations of Clinton were really funny. Some of the political humor on those shows was really funny and nothing I’ve been watching lately has been that funny.

Do you really think I’m a person without a sense of humor or is it possible Jon Stewart just isn’t as funny as people here think?

[zippywpinhead]

"I keep watching these because I'm waiting for Jon Stewart to actually be funny but I realize now my expectations might be too high"

or maybe you just don't have a sense of humor- must be all that bitterness...

[NicoleAnonymous]

I'm a very bitter person but I still have a sense of humor. Anyway why do you have to insult me just because I don't think he is funny? Should I pretend he is funny so people won't insult me? Would you really prefer that?

The reality is I'm not being paid millions for a show where I have professional writers working for me. I do expect Stewart to be funny - because THAT IS HIS JOB and he is paid for it. It's not my job.

[za2008]

NicoleAnonymous,

Care to look on the guest lists of the comedy shows and talk shows that you're referring to? Just for the record, Hillary Clinton was on entertainment shows (Inside Hollywood for one) at least since New Hampshire, she's visited Leno, the Daily Show, SNL, etc. and made an unapologetic play for the daytime viewing audience. McCain was just on the view a few days back.

And, by the way, there's a Democrat Presidential Debate tomorrow evening (Wednesday) in Pennsylvania. Obama agreed to a North Carolina debate but Clinton agreed to a debate on a different night.

Please. This is about as valid of a criticism of Obama as Clinton's Bosnia claim.

[NicoleAnonymous]

I was talking about Clinton also - I didn't mean to say that only Obama goes on these shows. I meant there is a difference between the candidates now and the candidates a few years ago.

How many talk shows did Clinton do? He played his saxophone on a late night talk show and that is about it.

[wisjoh]

Jon Stewart WAS funny. One of his best. And of course , everyone is delivering him CHOICE material, not only his fabulous writers.
And, if you haven´t noticed, a little humor, along with realizing what a ROTTEN state
we´re in,
can do W O N D E R S for the Pschye of the general public.
And that´s IT, Nicole!

[goodtomeetyou]

Obama, "refuses to have another televised debate with Clinton because that just would have been too difficult." NicoleAnonymous, where exactly did you get this misinformation, which is Clintonspeak for lie. They have a debate in PA tonight. Hillary was also asked to a college tour with Chris Matthews which she has yet to accept due to scheduling issues, although both Obama and McCain have already participated. I want a specific answer Nicole as to where you got you information about refusing a televised debate with Hillary.

[SubparDude]

:

Why is it sanctimoniously declared bad form to imply anything at all about Pennslyvania while the same anti-Obama speaker utters "San Francisco" like it was unworthy of mention. The mere name eliciting knowing winks of contempt & ridicule.

Who's kidding whom with the condescension rap?

:

[NicoleAnonymous]

Because SF is a city with a reputation for being the most liberal place in the country but in reality it's a place with lots of very wealthy, elitist people who have grown up with more advantages than most Americans, the kind of people who have global warming bumper stickers on their huge SUVs, the kind of people who preach about buying everything organic for their children at Whole Foods while forgetting most Americans can't afford expensive arugula or they can't pay their heating bills, the kind of people who live in million dollar homes, driving expensive cars, wearing expensive designer clothes that have a "hippie" look to them so they can pretend they're cutting edge liberals so nobody gives them a bad time when they go to Burning Man next year.

So when a person insults working class people in PA while attending a dinner in SF filled with elitist "liberals" who think it's amusing to put down people who are religious or use guns then some people might be offended by that.

[rzan]

You are doing the very thing you accuse Obama of doing. You are characterizing an entire group of people. Actually, it sound like you are talking about Hillary.

[SubparDude]

What a load of oversimplified, generalized fecalmatter. You are as bigoted and over-opinionated, narrow and hate-mongering as all you pretend to loathe. "Insults" you decry? Read your own diatribe. Jeez!

--- Not from SF.

[stdeclan]

Wow what's got your knickers in a twist?
Did you not make the cheerleader squad in high school so ever since you've been out to get back at all those cool kids ? "I don't care, I never really wanted to cheer lead. Pfff! Those girls are just elitists anyway?"
Or didn't you get invited to sit in some drum circle at the last Burning Man you went too.

[Mchris1947]

Nicole, you want to have it both ways, I see. BOTH Candidates have NO PROBLEM showing up in California, both LA and SF, to pander for our "liberal elitist" campaign contributions, because that's where the money is. But, then Clinton wants to be able to go back to PA, and insinuate we're not "real americans" out west. That's hillarious when some of the richest families in the country live in PA (Carnegie, Mellon, Heinz and so on). I hope she remembers that when she comes flying back to CA AGAIN ith her hand out looking for more money.

If she doesn't like our "kind", she should just loan herself the money next time.

Hillary is once agian trying to divide and conquer within her own Party. So NOW it's elites vs. the working class in PA, and NOW Hillary is for the working class. She wasn't so working class when she was pushing NAFTA in the 90s. And her husband isn't nearly so working class RIGHT NOW TODAY, working for NAFTA II in Columbia.

[IndependentMeans]

Nicole: There are many people in San Francisco who can barely make a living. The woman who broke the story about bitter said the people in the room were not the "wealthy" types. Obviously, you don't know San Francisco. It is so diverse, huge SUV's are few as there is no parking for them, and you don't know what the hell you are talking about, so stuff it.

[kburlz]

If "elite" means our best and brightest (which it does), I guess "elitist" means someone who thinks the elite should lead our country. Count me as one more elitist.

[elainebarili]

Elitism is an attitude and nothing more.

[Mojane]

hmmmm. Check a dictionary. Please.

[Barbarossa03]

I think there is being elite - as far as being the best at what you do because you take a personal professional pride in achieving this stature. You hold an excellence without arrogance.

and

I think there is elitism where you have or maintain an artificial sense of being elite. This could be because you are well off than others, smarter than others, etc, but with all this advantage you actually don't contribute anything really productive.

[adeak]

There are many different definitions of elite [from dictionary.com]: 1) one is about being the best (up for debate among all the voters); 2) one is about "people of the highest class" (I doubt liberals and democrats think these people are automatically superior to everyone else); and 3) people exercising the major share of authority or influence within a larger group. This charge that Obama is elitist though is subtly different: elitism is more about the belief that certain persons or members of certain classes or groups deserve favored treatment by virtue of their perceived superiority, as in intellect, social status, or financial resources and the sense of entitlement enjoyed by such a group or class. The sting about the charges of elitism against Obama is that he accuses rural blue collar americans' failure to vote for him because they are racist, xenophobic, religious, and gun-toters (all because they have less access to jobs due to the Bush and Clinton administrations). His statement diminishes and dismisses the faith, first of all, of rural Americans. Obama manages to dismiss the religious beliefs of working class whites as desperate while he lumps in their faith with racism, xenophobia, and anti-trade sentiment.It implies that rural whites wouldn't have strong faith withouth economic distress, or that they would choose not to enjoy hunting if they could get a better job in the city. Once they got a higher paying job they would finally vote for him.

[Brettster]

I hope Hillary supporters realize how uncool and out of touch with the progressive/democratic majority they're being. Maybe Jon Stewart treating their tactics for what they are will wake some of them up.

"oh my god, I'm acting like a Bush supporter! What was I thinking?"

[adeak]

well, maybe Jon's criticism of Obama's campaign in giving him the Dick Award of the week a couple times will wake Obama's campaign up to the fact that they are not the happy, cool, high-horse, new politics campaign they think he represents but he is a run of the mill pol implementing the very tactics he decries as pathetic and bringing down politics in the US. Oh sorry, Obama didn't heed that Comedy Central rebuke but ramped up the personal attacks (Annie Oakley, etc.). I guess some folks only understand the valid comedic criticism against Hillary and not Obama.

[harriscrl3]

This was AWESOME LOL. Aww in comedy lies the Truth.

From now on I'll Embrace the Elitist President.

Carol

[meanguy]

what a difference a week makes...last week the obamanite faithful was whining about how biased jon jon stewart and the daily show is against the obamessiah...and how he's not funny anymore, either...funny is funny, guys...keep that mind the next time he commits anti-obama blashphemy, and hld off with the fatwah...

[mikelartist]

you must be hallucinating. Stewart simply speaks the truth. Obviously you have never watched more than a snippet of his show.

No one was whining and Stewart wasn't being biased.

Leave it to your clueless neocons to see a boogeyman around every corner and under every rock.

[pinkyboo]

I'm an Obama supporter but alot of his other supporters WERE complaining how Jon was in HRC's pocket because of something he said about Obama a few days ago on this very site - "meanguy" has a point.

[SCharb]

Yeah, some people take it too far. Only a few fringe nuts though. Every group has 'em... some worse than others.

[VicksieDo]

Truth can be so funny!

[MicahD]

One and maybe only reason Clinton would be good for our country....better Daily Show material!
Wait, the better the material for the Daily Show, the worse the president.

[Indyfromny]

God Bless Mr. Stewart, he's one of the few in the media who get it.

[Pookie2112]

Leave it to a COMEDIAN to put things in its proper perspective and get the clue the rest of the MSM obviously misses. Kudo's to Jon Stewart - AGAIN - I watch every night but last night was one of the best I've seen!

[TG3b]

http://jewishworldreview.com/cols/sowell041508.php3

[Plank]

When we deal with tough scientific problems, we rely on the elite scientists and nobel laureates. When there is a military emergency, we rely on elite troups. When we compete in the olympics, we send our elite athletes and teams.
Only in politics are we asked to settle for the incompetent and the mediocre.

[MrJoyboy]

Marx did say "Religion is the opiate of the masses"--which is exactly what it is.

[LivingStardust]

Running for President or pledging. ROFLMAO

[LABC]

LOL!! He is so the mac to my cheese. I love how he parades out the usual media douchebags and wipes them out. So funny, I had to watch it twice!

[adeak]

Again, I'm amazed how quickly you forget that Obama did the exact same beer-drink-while-hauling-out-the-camera-crews to make sure they saw what a regular guy of the people he was just a couple weeks ago. He was "pledging" before she was. His dismissive laugh and mocking tone (such as during the Annie Oakley insult) towards a very qualified (with virtually the same positions he holds but formulated and publicized just a few days before he released those same positions) woman candidate is not a new politics but the same old politics. He's playing the game more than anyone else. The "cling-gate" stings because people are less likely to support him because it highlights Obama's hypocrisy. And I say "cling" instead of "bitter" because everyone is indeed upset and bitter about the economy due to Bush policies, but the statement that rural citizens "cling" to god, guns, racism, and anti-trade feelings because they don't have a job is really the part that is insulting.