Watch The Daily Show roll its eyes at outrage over Obama's handshake with Raul Castro
This isn't Chamberlain selling Czechoslovakia to the Nazis, says Jon Stewart, no matter what John McCain says
Many of the world's leaders, including President Obama and three of his predecessors, gathered in Johannesburg, South Africa, on Tuesday for a sometimes solemn, sometimes jubilant memorial service for Nelson Mandela. And Mandela's death "left a message for the world," said Jon Stewart on Tuesday night's Daily Show: "That no act is too petty for America's news media to blow completely out of proportion."
Stewart was talking about Obama's brief handshake with Cuban leader Raúl Castro, whom Stewart half-dismissed as "Cuba's Jim Belushi: He's good, but he ain't John." This was at the funeral for Mandela, a man who transformed his nation and inspired the world by radically forgiving his tormentors, Stewart noted, and people are really outraged over "a gesture so meaningless you can train a basset hound to do it"?
Many people were upset, at least. Stewart was especially bemused by Sen. John McCain's (R-Ariz.) almost inevitable breaking of Godwin's law, when he compared the passing Obama-Castro encounter to Neville Chamberlain's handshake with Hitler. McCain's argument was that Castro is diplomatically toxic because he's holding at least one American prisoner, but you know who else has a spotty record with imprisoning people... in Cuba? Stewart asked, archly.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
The point is, Stewart concluded, "the president behaved himself just fine" at Mandela's memorial service. Well, except for that selfie...
Stewart started out Tuesday's show with a different kind of American exceptionalism: The 113th Congress, which is about to wrap up perhaps the least productive legislative years in U.S. history:
To get to the bottom of how the U.S. arrived at this point of not-completely-accidental gridlock, Stewart turned the show over to correspondent Jason Jones. The culprit, Jones decided, was the gerrymandering of districts so that all but a handful of House seats are all-but-bulletproof for whichever party drew up the state's redistricting map. This has been discussed in great depth and in detail elsewhere, but Jones went somewhere new, at least to me: He spoke with one of the partisan mapmakers.
Kimball Brace is president of Election Data Services Inc., a Virginia consulting firm, and he told Jones that his data-driven, partisan district mapmaking is a fine art. Jones ran with that conceit, even stumping redistricting opponent Melanie Sloan, of the group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), on why Brace's dark arts can't actually be considered, well, art. This being The Daily Show, Jones took the analogy to its logical conclusion.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
This sort of absurdist take on America's absurdities is where The Daily Show shines. Watch:
Create an account with the same email registered to your subscription to unlock access.
Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.
-
Humza Yousaf clears the decks to battle no-confidence vote
Speed Read First minister is 'done', according to insider, but a single vote could change the balance
By Arion McNicoll, The Week UK Published
-
Immunotherapy and hay fever
The Explainer Research shows that the treatment could provide significant relief from symptoms for many hay fever sufferers
By Richard Windsor, The Week UK Published
-
The week's best photos
In Pictures A flooded island, a ballistic missile, and more
By Anahi Valenzuela, The Week US Published
-
Arizona court reinstates 1864 abortion ban
Speed Read The law makes all abortions illegal in the state except to save the mother's life
By Rafi Schwartz, The Week US Published
-
Trump, billions richer, is selling Bibles
Speed Read The former president is hawking a $60 "God Bless the USA Bible"
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
The debate about Biden's age and mental fitness
In Depth Some critics argue Biden is too old to run again. Does the argument have merit?
By Grayson Quay Published
-
How would a second Trump presidency affect Britain?
Today's Big Question Re-election of Republican frontrunner could threaten UK security, warns former head of secret service
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published
-
'Rwanda plan is less a deterrent and more a bluff'
Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
By The Week UK Published
-
Henry Kissinger dies aged 100: a complicated legacy?
Talking Point Top US diplomat and Nobel Peace Prize winner remembered as both foreign policy genius and war criminal
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Last updated
-
Trump’s rhetoric: a shift to 'straight-up Nazi talk'
Why everyone's talking about Would-be president's sinister language is backed by an incendiary policy agenda, say commentators
By The Week UK Published
-
More covfefe: is the world ready for a second Donald Trump presidency?
Today's Big Question Republican's re-election would be a 'nightmare' scenario for Europe, Ukraine and the West
By Sorcha Bradley, The Week UK Published