Jon pulled some punches, but did not refrain from throwing them. The President defended the Health Care Bill as laying a framework for future policy, arguing that it was not "timid" but instead ground-breaking, and that it accomplished "90%" of what he wanted.
He directly expressed dissatisfaction with the very thing that dissatisfied so many of us: the Obama Administration made broad promises to revamp and restructure a corrupt and often completely non-functional system, but then relied on the manipulations of that system to accomplish its goals so far. President Obama said that this was a necessity: certain actions had to be taken quickly, and therefore they made use of the existing system despite its myriad pitfalls. He also revealed a minor glimpse of his agenda for the next two years: energy reform, immigration reform, and a priority on rebuilding the workforce.
All in all, he seemed relaxed and handled the encounter with a loose cannon--Jon Stewart is one of the most unpredicatable yet effective interviewers in the media, and his popularity among the young voters makes him a politically powerful pundit (Try saying that 3 times fast!)--fairly well. He said all the right things. But Mr. President, we have heard you say all the right things before. Talk is cheap, and to be perfectly honest "Talk" values have reached an all-time low during this election season. Let's see more results, and less complaining about how filibusters turn "Yes We Can!" into "But It's Hard!"
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