College Publisher Test Site

Issue date: 11/20/08 Section: Entertainment

Jon Stewart

From the moment Jon Stewart took the stage at the Hamilton College Margaret Bundy Scott Field House and proclaimed, "This is a wonderful place to dump a body" it was clear that he would be injecting his trademark humor into his Nov. 14 speech.?

Stewart spoke to around three thousand people about President-elect Barack Obama, politics, and "wedge issues." Wedge issues are controversial social or political issues that divide a base of people.?

Stewart focused mainly on the often polarizing issue of gay marriage. He brought up Proposition 8, the California state ballot proposition that banned gay marriage, and the irony in the fact that Californians voted positively for a proposition that would guarantee proper leg room for chickens in slaughterhouses, stating that Californians seemed to value the lives of chickens over the rights of human beings.?

"I could see gay marriage being an issue if the government made it mandatory," Stewart quipped. "Your mind can be changed, your heart can be swayed… but your genitals are stubborn."

? Stewart highlighted that it isn't usually the average American making decisions regarding wedge issues like gay marriage, saying that the great mass in America doesn't have the time or energy to be heavily involved, so solutions come from the extreme right or left and these solutions are often dogmatic rather than pragmatic, which makes it difficult to put any of them into practice.?

"Free societies can't be one hundred percent foolproof," Stewart said.? Politics also featured heavily in Stewart's speech, as any "Daily Show" viewer might expect.?

"Is America ready [for an African-American President]?" Stewart said. "Obama, yes. Mr. T, probably not."?

While talking about President-elect Obama, Stewart brought up the fact that Obama is often labeled an elitist.

? "Doesn't elite mean good?" Stewart said. He added that he felt a president should "Be great. Be better than us. We got swept up in the Macarena! We don't know s--- about s---."?

Stewart said Obama seemed like a "reasonably boring, pragmatic guy" that "will do his job and won't lie to us… yet."?

Stewart said that cynicism plays a large part in American politics and the apathy many Americans feel toward government.
?
"Have we become so cynical, so busy, that we've lost our sense of accountability for public officials?" he said.?

Continued...

Page 1 of 2 next >

Article Tools