The Daily Background

According to CNN, Jon Stewart is quite the power-broker:

Tom Vilsack, the Iowa Democratic governor who announced a presidential run last month, is set to appear Monday on “The Daily Show” — the Comedy Central program hosted by comedian Jon Stewart that has become almost a necessary pit stop on the road to the White House.

[…]
“The Daily Show” has become a popular forum for aspiring politicians, despite the prospect of Stewart’s potentially irreverent questioning. In 2004, former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards chose the venue to announce his candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination. Potential ‘08 hopefuls and Sens. John McCain of Arizona, Hillary Clinton of New York, and Barack Obama of Illinois have also made appearances on the show.

Well, I think CNN is kind of inflating the importance of TDS, but I’m sure Stewart would be flattered. Vislack was on The Daily Show last night and you can watch the video below. His appearence was very strong, garnering several laughs. One quick joke explained: at the beginning of the interview, the ‘08er gives Stewart a duck that says “Aflac.” This is an allusion to the jokes Stewart has made about his last name (that Vilsack sounds an awful lot like the name of the insurance company). Vilsack was then able to work in a couple of canned jokes surrounding the duck. Very strong performance, he came off as extremely polished.

Filed under: Video, Presidential election, Z-TDB Blog