Stoned Slackers For Obama

The other night in the the Kingdom of "Nospin," his Majesty Bill O'Reilly referred to Jon Stewart's audience as "stoned slackers who love Obama." As a member of that audience, and a loyal one at that, I may have been too stoned to realize that I was slacking, but I was fully aware of my ambivalence toward our President. One of the reasons I tune in to "The Daily Show" is because I appreciate the filter through which the news of the day (barring reruns, weekends, and holidays) is filtered. Mister Stewart and his writers are that filter.
Currently, Jon Stewart is staying true to his promise of keeping his tongue firmly in his cheek even as "his guy" enters his second year in office. Allusions to the jesters in the court of long ago and far away are easy enough to be made. The "truth" can be heard in the words of the fool. King Bill was quick to point out that Robert Lichter, director of the Center for Media and Public Affairs refers to Jon Stewart as "an important cultural arbiter." His royal highness was quoting a Washington Post article, giving more credence to the notion that there is real media power in that late-night-basic-cable-half-hour. For those of us who aren't too stoned to listen.
Still, as someone who would at times consider himself a cultural arbiter, I know that the hard truths make the biggest laughs. Hence all those jokes about lost socks. It is the those broad, easy targets that get the best shots. Eight years of President Pinhead provided all of us with a generation of easy laughs: low-hanging fruit of malapropisms and narrow-minded fixation equals comedy. And there was that old scary guy who shot people in the face.
In the end, I am sorry to say that I have spent more time pondering the banter of two talk-show hosts than I have considering the text of the most recent State of the Union address. I guess that's what I should expect from a stoned slacker.