ABSTRACT
By June 2010, liberal political satirist Jon Stewart had had enough. He had supported Barack Obama as a candidate and as president, but now he was on the attack. On his Comedy Central cable program The Daily Show (episode no. 15136, October 27, 2010), Stewart delivered a lengthy and impassioned tirade against President Obama’s use of unilateral executive power in ways that resembled and even exceeded those of George W. Bush. Using clips from the 2008 campaign, Stewart contrasted statements made by candidate Obama, who had criticized Bush’s use of executive power, and the actions of President Obama. Looking for an explanation for this turn of events, Stewart compared Obama to Frodo, the hobbit hero of The Lord of the Rings, who succumbed to the temptations of power embedded in a magical talisman. By the lights of The Daily Show, President Obama had failed to deliver on his promise of change in the presidency (“Respect My Authoritah” 2010).
