Jon Stewart mocks the bipartisan fear and self-loathing in the 2014 midterm debates

Jon Stewart mocks the bipartisan fear and self-loathing in the 2014 midterm debates
(Image credit: The Daily Show)

Jon Stewart is clearly unimpressed with the tenor of the debate leading up to the 2014 midterm elections. But on Wednesday night's Daily Show he found three things that Democrats and Republicans in close Senate and House races seem to agree on. First, they all seem to be running against President Obama. "Do you see?" he said dryly. "All this country needed to come together is a common enemy, whether it be the Germans or the Soviets or the man we overwhelmingly re-elected to lead us 23 months ago."

The other two common denominators are fear and loathing. "This election's underlying theme is that both parties are so unpopular, that their candidates are running on how much they hate themselves," he said, adding that the GOP has "a slight advantage" because they "get to run on the anger resulting from" the broken government they've spent the last six years breaking. Stewart used Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) as an example — and probably also so he could break out his crowd-pleasing Cecil Turtle impression.

And since the candidates have nothing positive to run on, they are all pointing fingers at things like Ebola and ISIS. "Midterms 2014," Stewart sighed: "We have nothing to fear but fear itself, so we're going to go with fear." --Peter Weber

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Peter Weber

Peter Weber is a senior editor at TheWeek.com, and has handled the editorial night shift since the website launched in 2008. A graduate of Northwestern University, Peter has worked at Facts on File and The New York Times Magazine. He speaks Spanish and Italian and plays bass and rhythm cello in an Austin rock band. Follow him on Twitter.