Is it ok for the Daily Show to joke about Obama?

Yes. [Link]

Says Jim Treacher in the comments to the Headlines item, “That’s my favorite part, the nervous, hesitant laughter. You can almost hear the audience thinking, ‘Is this okay? Will people think I’m a racist?’”

Go to the link and watch the video.

No. [Link]

The producers should be careful when poking fun at Obama not to provide fuel for the right-wing slime machine. Poke fun at Obama all you want, but do it in a way that also reveals the Republicans’ mendacity and hypocrisy.

Turns out he’s also a neocon-lapdog Iraq war enabler; follow the link up top for details. One of my pet peeves about Stewart, also memorably phrased by Treacher, is his “clown nose on, clown nose off” shtick when he’s criticized for wielding his political influence irresponsibly. It’s gratifying to find someone on the left seeing through it, but leave it to HuffPo to submerge the critique in a lament that one of the left’s most reliable and effective media messengers somehow isn’t liberal enough. When does message discipline turn creepy? When a love tap as gentle as this is enough to warrant a public rebuke.

I stopped watching when the barbs became pointed all in one direction. Hopefully, this bodes well for equal opportunity satire in thre future.