Fading Hope

American Presidents have to be thick-skinned. They can't let what they hear in the media get to them, or they'd lock themselves in the Lincoln bedroom or hide in a secure undisclosed location, refusing to come out until their term was over. They have to be made of sterner stuff.

But they can't ignore the press. Or entertainment masquerading as the press, for that matter.

If you were President Obama, the last thing you'd want to hear is criticism coming at you from Jon Stewart and his Daily Show team. Those folks are smart, and funny, and are watched by most of the throngs of independents and democrats that are your base of support. They helped you get elected, but they can just as easily kick your ass.

But criticism is just what the Daily Show is beginning to serve up. And the President better be paying attention. When Stewart recently lampooned Mr. Obama's statement that he was looking for the right 'asses to kick' about the Gulf Oil Spill, he was more than half-serious.

And that same show's ridicule of the President's apparent categorization of every problem he faces as 'complicated' or 'complex', wasn't just good-natured ribbing. It came off sounding almost like bitter disappointment.

Which does not bode well for our President.

I know it's just TV, but the administration would be wrong to ignore it. Obama and his advisors can safely disregard Glenn Beck and most other conservative pundits, but it would be fatal to ignore his own court jester. Rather he should use the Daily Show as a mirror, and take a good, hard, look. People are beginning to laugh at you Mr. President, not with you. And that never ends well for politicians.