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March 04, 2006

Someone Else Who Needs a Life Outside Politics

In our ongoing series highlighting people who need to lighten up, we present Michael Kalin, a 2005 graduate of Harvard College who explains Why Jon Stewart Isn't Funny.

Shorter version: Stewart makes people laugh at politics and politicians, which makes intelligent people less likely to go into politics. (Bug, or feature? You decide.) Kalin sees this as a bad thing, because it hurts the Democrats. This makes little sense to me, since I have it on good authority that the Democrats have run super-geniuses for President the last two elections and lost to a man who needs Karl Rove to wipe the drool from his upper lip, so the idea intelligence is a plus in politics seems like a questionable concept if one subscribes to Democratic preconceptions.

Here we have a man who is worried that Jon Stewart is dragging the country down because he's keeping good people from going into (Democratic) politics. Perhaps I'm just a bit too nuanced to understand that argument, but it seems to me that when your life revolves around politics to such a degree that you believe a late-night talk show host is a significant factor in your party's electoral chances, maybe it's time to get another hobby.