Jon Stewart vs. John Bolton : This could have never happened on a real news show

I usually need little reasons to praise the work of Jon Stewart and the crew over at The Daily Show, even though the show has been lacking the freshness of earlier years. This lack of freshness has to do with the fact that TDS has become the Oprah Book Club of the country's punditocracy. Anybody who is anybody in Capitol Hill and who has a book to hawk will fight tooth and nail to get their 30 seconds of fame with Stewart (or Colbert, for that matter) if it means their book will sell. And even if either has called them a douchebag in past shows.

Which is why I flabbergasted by the timing of John Bolton's appearance on the show yesterday.

He had no book.

He has no project.

He came in to tell Stewart how wrong he was for thinking the current mess over at the Justice Department was a scandal at all.

Bolton went to the show to debate and put Jon Stewart in his place?

Oh. Hell. Yes!

Now that is amazing TV.

What amazes me about this exchange is how you can see every physical moment of Stewart's listening. You can see him parsing the harsh criticism with ideas and leaving the cheap shots behind. You can see him taking a deferring stance to hit Bolton with the truthiness of his words and smack him with the truth.

What is even better is how Bolton stands up to the task and shows us how formidable --and funny-- an opponent he can be.

Honestly, this could have never happened in a "real" news show --even Olbermann. Sorry dude, but Jon Stewart still pwns you.

What's frightening is that this is happening in a show that is a parody of news shows. That we have to get the truth from clowns in business suits is just ... wow.

EDITORIAL NOTE : I am trying to play nice with Viacom by using their Comendy Central EMBED LINKS but they are badly written. Please go here and complain about their faulty coding.

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