The final delegates put the next Democratic nominee for president over the top to clinch the nomination. The crowd is electric inside the Palace of Auburn Hills, Michigan, before exploding in applause after the state of New York announces its favorite son is going to take on Vice President JD Vance for the presidency.
“There it is. Jon Stewart is now officially the nominee!” MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow gushes. “He is the man who will take back this country from tyranny!”
Now, before you pooh-pooh the idea of a fake anchor of a fake news show on Comedy Central being the new leader of the Blue Team, think about the precedent and the weakness of his competition.
First, the precedent:
Ronald Reagan won his party’s nomination in 1980 and the presidency in a landslide.
Clint Eastwood was once elected mayor of Carmel, California.
Fred Grandy, who played a guy named Gopher on The Love Boat, won two different House races in Iowa.
Volodymyr Zelensky, a former comedian and actor, won Ukraine’s presidency in 2019, also in a landslide.
Arnold Schwarzenegger won two gubernatorial elections in the blue state of California as a Republican.
Actor Fred Thompson won a Senate seat in Tennessee and even ran for president in 2008.
Actor and comedian Al Franken won a Senate seat in Minnesota and probably would have run for president in 2020 if not for sexual harassment allegations.
We could go on, but you get the point. It’s not so far-fetched for Stewart to capture the Democratic nomination, especially given the most recent precedent of President Donald Trump’s jump from The Apprentice to the presidency.
And then there’s what could be the former Daily Show host’s competition for the nomination. Does anyone really think there’s one candidate out there on the Left that can generate more free media than Stewart in the same manner Trump did in 2015-2016 against 17 others in easily cruising to the GOP nomination?
Rhetorical question.
Look who the likely contenders will be:
A) Socialist Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), who supports open borders and a path to citizenship for all those entering the country illegally. She also staunchly opposes funding for Israel’s Iron Dome, which has saved countless lives. And on spending, she wants to commit trillions of taxpayer dollars to tackle climate change.
B) Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA), who presides over a state with the highest taxes in the country, almost completely shut down his state over COVID-19 for years while breaking his own rules time and again, and totally botched preparation and response to California wildfires earlier this year. Even his own residents don’t want him to run: A recent Emerson College/Inside California Politics poll found that 59% said they don’t think Newsom should run in 2028.
C) Former Vice President Kamala Harris, who has never received one vote in a primary despite running for president twice. She lost the last election decisively to Trump, has basic communication skill problems when speaking outside of a teleprompter, and is forever tethered to the Biden administration, arguably the worst of our lifetimes.
D) Pete Buttigieg, a failed mayor of South Bend, Indiana, and an even bigger failure as former President Joe Biden’s transportation secretary. He once took paternity leave for two months during a supply chain crisis without telling anyone. He recently grew a beard to appear tougher and more manly. He also launched a $1 billion pilot program to “build racial equity in roads.” He comes across as if he were programmed by ChatGPT.
E) Gov. JB Pritzker (D-IL), a Fred Flintstone doppelganger. Similar to Newsom, he is presiding over a blue state that is seeing such a mass exodus due to high crime and taxes that it will likely lose electoral votes after the 2030 census. Similar to Ocasio-Cortez, he supports mass amnesty for illegal immigrants.
F) Gov. Andy Beshear (D-KY): If watching paint dry is your thing, Beshear is just the candidate for you. Seen as a relative centrist, being a Democratic governor of a red state. And centrists simply do not get the same media attention that an Ocasio-Cortez or Stewart would receive.
G) Rahm Emanuel, who left Chicago as mayor with an 18% approval rating. He’s also seen as a relative centrist.
There may be a few others — Govs. Gretchen Whitmer (D-MI), Josh Shapiro (D-PA), Wes Moore (D-PA) — but this isn’t exactly the 1927 Yankees. Also, Stewart has shown an ability to effectively debate, most notably in his pointed exchange with Tucker Carlson and Paul Begala, which pretty much led to the end of CNN’s Crossfire more than 20 years ago.
Stewart isn’t necessarily seen as a Hollywood elitist. The 62-year-old got passionately involved in hounding Congress to pass legislation as it pertains to providing millions to first responders with possibly fatal or debilitating health issues after 9/11. And he didn’t just throw a check at a charity or record a PSA and call it a day — he literally went to Capitol Hill and brought a ton of media attention with him.
During one hearing in 2019, Stewart was met with some empty seats while speaking to the House Judiciary Committee after some representatives decided not to show up.
“It’s an embarrassment to the country,” Stewart said. “And you should be ashamed of yourselves.”
The clip went viral. The full House Judiciary Committee voted unanimously to advance the bill, which eventually passed overwhelmingly.
Stewart has also been very active in supporting veterans exposed to toxins, having played a key role in getting the PACT Act passed. “I’m not sure I’ve ever seen this situation where people who have already given so much had to fight so hard to get so little,” Stewart said. “I hope we learned a lesson.”
The Democratic Party is completely in the toilet right now, clocking in at 19% approval in Quinnipiac University’s latest survey. One of the primary reasons is trust: How could anyone have faith in a party that has had fixed presidential primaries for the last three elections?
In 2016, Hillary Clinton was crowned the nominee, with WikiLeaks emails showing the DNC did everything in its power to ensure a surging Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) didn’t sniff the nomination. In 2020, Biden finished fourth in Iowa and fifth in New Hampshire before his competition was convinced to drop out of the race ahead of Super Tuesday because the powers that be saw him as someone who could be sold as a centrist compared to the other candidates, including Buttigieg, Sanders, and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA). And in 2024, Biden was shoved aside after flopping in his debate against Trump, again by party powers, and Harris was installed without any input from the public.
While we’re on the trust question, how could voters trust Democrats after the lockdowns and school closings they advocated so passionately for during COVID-19? And how could voters ever trust this party again after the attempted cover-up of Biden’s failing cognitive health, arguably one of the biggest political scandals in history?
For Stewart’s part, agree or disagree with him, he has an authenticity gene that others, most notably Newsom, Buttigieg, Ocasio-Cortez, and Harris, lack. He also obviously has great comedic timing, which plays well to a press that isn’t interested in doing deep dives in tax or foreign policy, and instead goes for the easy, cheap zinger every time — see the media rise of Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX) as an example.
Note: Nobody is saying Stewart will be the 48th president of the United States. While his record of supporting first responders and veterans is admirable, it’s as clear as mud where he stands on China, Israel, or trade policy. He’s been a vocal opponent of Trump’s border wall. He’s never run a business or been an executive of anything, unlike Trump.
But that may not matter in today’s political environment. Establishment candidates are almost seen as toxic. Voters continue to yearn for candor and sharp elbows.
FOUR LIES THAT TOPPLED THE ESTABLISHMENT
Jon Stewart, your 2028 Democratic nominee?
It’s not as far-fetched as it first sounded.