The week of Nov. 3rd to 6th on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart back in New York anticipating the midterm elections, money’s effect on politics, and Republicans sweep the Senate
As Stewart forecasted, it was a bad week for Democrats as the GOP collected votes and took control of the majority of Congress. The host, in good riddance, started off showing a few funny clips of Republicans’ campaign ads, namely the Mitch McConnell’s ‘avant-garde’ silence and Joni Ernst farmer commercials shown below. But more surprisingly were the debates in New York and Florida; Michael Grimm’s win over Recchia even though having over 20 indictments and Charlie Crist ‘fan’ controversy. When one thinks that it cannot get even more frivolous and puerile than this, Stewart presents another clip showing the debate between Connecticut’s Tom Foley and Dan Malloy. Foley addresses an Essex citizen’s request for him to change the name of his yacht which apparently means female slave or concubine. By drawing attention to the ridiculousness that sometimes saturates these debates with superfluous arguments somewhat predicts the continued impartiality of the government to achieve anything in the next couple of years. Jake Gyllenhaal is the guest to promote his new movie Nightcrawler.
A tremendous issue related to past elections, and particularly with this midterm primaries, was the impact that funding had on supporting candidates through campaign ads and other qualified convention expenditures. Republicans have been continually criticized in the past for spending large amounts of money in the elections to fuel their venture and conservative objectives. Democrats on the other hand wanted to formulate ideas to campaign and leave money out of politics; however, with the competition being fierce, they had no other choice but to solicit funds from supportive members by even more abrasive methods than their opposition like the constant emails. According to the Open Secrets Organization, outside groups have spent over $1.5 Billion in aiding both parties with financial activities during the 2013-2014 year. In one of the best hilarious skits during this wekk, Rob Riggle personifies ‘Money’ as Stewart tries to leverage money vs. ideas in the world of politics. View below.
On Wednesday’s episode Stewart claims he did not watch the elections ¬¬– apparently he knew Republicans were going to win most of the seats – however no one could predict the landslide at which the GOP seized the majority of the House and the Senate. After a montage of TV networks describing the poll percentage for each Republican winning in states they don’t usually win, the pundit explores and compares the minority’s shift from Democrat to the GOP in states which are usually blue. Senior Political Analyst for The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, Jordan Klepper, reports that as soon as Republican party took a majority of the Senate there were some instantaneous positive effects. Gas lowered to under $3.00 per gallon, the economy growing at 3.5%, deficits cut in half, stock market rising, Americans having health insurance, and national unemployment rate below 6%. With hope and change on the horizons, Klepper states that, “yes we can” achieve the goals which we have set. Sounds familiar? On another note, it was good to see the famous comedian, and an Idol of Jon Stewart, John Cleese as the special guest promoting his new book.