President Barack Obama is looking for an ass to kick over the BP oil spill. Comedy Central's Jon Stewart suggests that he should start by kicking his own.
Tourism has taken a hit on the Gulf Coast and Stewart doesn't think that Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour is helping the situation. Barbour went on Fox News Sunday to say that oil on the beaches is nothing new.
"We've had virtually no oil. If you are on the Mississippi Gulf Coast any time in the last 48 days, you didn't see any oil at all. We've had a few tar balls but we have tar balls every year as a natural product of the Gulf of Mexico... so tar balls are no big deal," he told Fox News' Chris Wallace.
"It's like Barbour is the mayor from 'Jaws.' He's like we're not closing the beaches in tourist season," joked Stewart.
But Barbour wasn't the only politician under fire from Stewart Tuesday. He took a swipe at the president for buckling under pressure from pundits to show more emotion instead of spending his time in a more productive way.
"The president has finally bowed to public pressure and taken control of a centralized relief effort. I'm kidding. Sorry, he has bowed to pundit pressure to show emotion," said Stewart.
"I don't sit around talking to experts because this is a college seminar. We talk to these folks because they potentially have the best answers so I know whose ass to kick," Obama told NBC's Matt Lauer Monday.
For Stewart this recalled rhetoric used by President George W. Bush. "We're going to find that oil leak and bring it to justice. I want that oil dead or alive," mocked Stewart with a Bush impersonation.
"Ass quest 2010, the search for kickable ass! Who should receive the brunt of president's size twelve Air Jordans," Stewart wondered.
But only one elected official has taken full responsibility for stopping the leak and cleaning up the oil. "If you are wondering who is responsible, I take responsibility. It is my job to make sure that everything is done to shut this down," the president said on May 27.
"He has to kick his own ass," concluded Stewart. "I hope he has been doing yoga."
"It cannot be that the only thing our government is good for anymore is war. We have to at some point use the same urgency and preparedness that we brought to taking over other country's oil to cleaning up our own," noted the Comedy Central host.
Stewart directly addressed the president: "I'm glad that you are looking for an ass to kick. But in the meantime, I gotta tell you, right now it looks like the ass has been kicking you!"
This video is from Comedy Central's The Daily Show, broadcast June 8, 2010.
