Obama Channels Jon Stewart

Is Barack Obama channeling Jon Stewart for campaign advice? Could be.

In Los Angeles, the LA Times' "Top-of-the-Ticket" campaign column acidly observed that the Obama campaign 'blundered' last Sunday when it "sent out his communications director, Bill Burton, to denounce" this week's New Yorker cover drawing:

It was a huge PR mistake by a campaign that doesn't make many. *** It turned a mere magazine cover that the Obama campaign would rather no one see into a must-see for millions.

By Tuesday night, however, Obama himself had a better response on the Larry King show. To King's lead-off question, What do you make of it all?, the candidate replied:

"Well, I know it was the New Yorker's attempt at satire. I don't think they were entirely successful with it. But you know what? It's a cartoon, Larry, and that's why we've got the 1st Amendment.

"And I think the American people are probably spending a little more time worrying about what's happening with the banking system and the housing market, and what's happening in Iraq and Afghanistan, than a cartoon. So I haven't spent a lot of time thinking about it."

"Smart stuff," Top-of-the-Ticket says. "Too late."

Yes, it was a bit tardy. That's probably because it takes awhile to psychically channel a comedian's mind across four time zones. Here's the excerpt from Stewart's brain waves that Obama borrowed:

Click here to see the entire segment of John Stewart's take on Cartoon-gate.