Here and now begins the Jon Stewart for president movement, a groundswell that undoubtedly will propel him into the White House.
Stewart isn’t behind this draft. He will hear of it as it transitions from this initiative in Carson City into a full scale march toward putting an independent, thoughtful and serious comedic mind into our national political picture. Eventually, given current candidates, he’ll go into the history books as the 45th president of the United States. Let’s start with a quote showing Stewart has his head battened down in ship shape fashion.
“Liberal and conservative have lost their meaning in America,” said Stewart. “I represent the distracted center.”
Now let’s take on any dolts who think comedians or entertainers aren’t fit to tackle mind-boggling issues that our underwhelming and empty suited prez hopefuls, now running helter skelter, address with bombast but little aplomb. These prez wannabes blather on about their mostly besides-the-point points on everything imaginable.
Stewart regularly makes public stuffed shirts in empty suits look like buffoons. And after leaving his long time TV show, Stewart again turned his comedic/entertainer talents — he’s been doing it all along — to the serious task of making certain the United States fulfills its commitment to 9/11 first responders.
As for the notion of precedent, let’s bury the idea a comedic and entertainment guy or fem shouldn’t be part of our public life. Mark Twain, the nom de plume of Sam Clemens whose tall tale writing and lecturing began in these parts, helped bury discrimination’s reputation with his novel called “Huckleberry Finn.” Now that was serious yet entertaining national service, by the book.
We’ve even had a comedic presidential candidate, although he wasn’t as funny as Jon Stewart, to say nothing of Al Gore or Rudy Giuliani. For the latter pair, nothing fits. Anyway, Pat Paulson, a satirist, ran in 1968, ’72, ’80, ’88, ’92 and ’96. He didn’t win. He was up against those supposed paragons Nixon, Reagan, Bush I, and Clinton I. Egad, could there be a second Clinton or a third Bush in our future?
Paulson’s tongue-in-cheek runs skipped 1976 and 1984, ducking Jimmy Carter/Gerald Ford and former (Gasp!) entertainer Ronald Reagan when the Gipper won reelection as prez over Walter Mondale.
All of us should get behind pushing Stewart into a run as an Independent for president because he already has the kind of experience necessary.
It’s a leadership quality I learned years ago in Carson City from a leading entertainer here named David Bugli. Bugli — he of local symphony, jazz band, historical society, and parks and recreation foundation leadership roles — once told me it was no problem to take on various leadership roles as long as you realized, as he put it, “sleep is overrated.”
So Stewart already has great qualifications for high office besides being 35 or over, a U.S. citizen, a great communicator and smart enough to avoid declaring himself a candidate for president.
“Insomnia is my greatest inspiration,” he once said. So he’s ready for any 3 a.m. White House phone call. He’s good on TV, too. He’s no sleeper. So draft Stewart.
If you think this is just some dream in passing, perhaps you’re correct. But it’s a sugar plum dance in the head compared with many alternative nightmare scenarios.
John Barrette covers Carson City government and business. He can be reached at jbarrette@nevadaappeal.com.
