Review: Obama on Daily Show / Hillary on Colbert

On the eve of the Pennsylvania Primary, both Senators Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton appeared on Comedy Central, no doubt hoping to woo those countless couch potatoes off their couches and into the voting booth the following day. Both candidates showed comic potential, at least when compared to John Kerry, but they did so in different ways. Hillary showed she could make fun of herself. Obama showed balls. Comic balls. 

Obama

Stewart, via satellite interview, began his interview with Obama with friendly salutations, giving Obama a forum to address the American people. But Stewart, to his credit (and this is really what makes him so great at this), cut the Illinois senator off right in the middle of his whole elaborate tangent on "healthcare, the mortgage crisis." 

"When you leave Pennsylvania, can you forget about them?" referring to Obama giving Pennsylvanians so much attention. He's been there six weeks, Stewart points out. "You show up in Montana, there's a quick primary for two hours, 'Hey nice to see ya, how's it goin', hey that's a nice mountain.'" 

Stewart moved the interview along fairly well, given the pressures of both taking advantage of having on a guest of this magnitude to ask him real questions, but also to be funny. Obama had a good line when he called Clinton's attacks on him a huge favor for when he has to go up against McCain. "Like spring training," he said. Stewart retorted by asking "If you were to become president, sir, will you pull a bait-and-switch sir, and enslave the white race?" and then whether or not he's worried about winning the election, getting sworn into office, and Hillary still campaigning ferociously outside. 

Overall, Obama was good - not great, but good. He showed he could handle the tough questions. He didn't try to do too much with the interview, kind of letting Stewart taking it where he wanted it to go. 

Later that night, Obama appeared on Colbert via satellite, right after Hillary. Here, he was much funnier. Even though, like Hillary's appearance, Obama's was clearly scripted and many of his jokes written, yet I thought possibly the funniest sequence was when he was deciding what "Distractions" should replace on the the "On Notice" board. "Grizzly bears stay because they are the leading threat to Americans," he said, likely scripted. But then he said "James Brady can go," referring to the top name on the board. "He's a good guy." Not knowing who James Brady was, I laughed at this. It seemed completely unscripted. Whether or not Obama was trying to be funny did not matter at this point. It was a sign of spontaneity. I liked it. 

(Upon further googling, I found out that James Brady received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from Bill Clinton in 1996 as a gun control activist. He was also Ronald Reagan's press secretary, shot during the 1981 assassination attempt, and left partially paralyzed for life, confined to a wheelchair. Did I mention he is a gun control activist?)

(This also begs the question, why was James Brady "On Notice" to begin with. Help me out with this one. Comment if you know the answer.)

Hillary

Hillary showed less balls. She didn't do an interview on either show, although to her credit she did appear in person on Colbert, not via satellite. So I guess that took some balls. Although we've never really questioned her balls, have we? When your dream job consists of working in the same office your husband got his dick sucked in, that takes balls. Big balls. Big, red, raging balls. 

She did show the ability to make fun of herself, however. "Call me anytime," she said after Colbert thanked her for fixing the TV monitor. "Call me at 3 a.m." 

Yet, to be honest, that's enough of Hillary. Frankly I'm tired of her. Let's hope Pennsylvania is too, I suppose, so this whole debacle can be over with and the democrats can force John McCain to come out of hiding. Seriously, McCain's gone all Bin-Laden on us. Where the fuck is he? Somebody tell him the Diamondbacks are in first place.