TV-Reviewed

The Daily Show – 100505 – Senator John Edwards
Original Air Date: October 5, 2005

Originally Published: October 18, 2005

Rating: 8.4

Jon starts off the show by mentioning Katie Holmes is pregnant. This ended up being rather humorous. Jon certainly took some shots at Tom Cruise here.

Jon transitioned right into the news of Judith Miller’s release from jail. She was released from jail for her testimony on the Valarie Plame case.

For more on this story, John turns to Senior White House Correspondent, Rob Corddry, who explained it in a little song. It was an incredibly short segment, running 20 or 30 seconds. This segment was so damn short, it was almost pointless. It’s almost like Rob was here as a contractual obligation, “I must appear X number of times a season”. I mean, yeah, it was somewhat funny, but there really wasn’t much substance to it.

Jon talked a little more about Scooter Libby and President Bush. Bush is allowed to talk about the Valerie Plame case, but has been reluctant to do so, and with yesterday’s press conference, he’s continuing that stance.

Jon then goes into a new segment, Red Planet. This was to detail China, who is quickly overtaking us in military size and population size. Jon couldn’t help but mention “rhino penis” several times in the segment; they (the Chinese) love to grind it up and put it in their food. China also now has the tallest man in the world, at 7′8″, certified by Guiness. The chart they made comparing China and the United States was hilarious, especially with the population and the military sizes.

After a commercial break, Jon was back with former Democratic Senator, John Edwards. The interview was focused on politics of course, where John Edwards criticized the administration for the war in Iraq and their response to Hurricane Katrina among other things. They then moved into a discussion on John Edwards’ poverty center, which is looking at the causes of poverty and is trying to come up with ideas to tackle the issue of poverty. While there was obviously some discussion of politics, it was an average discussion; there wasn’t anything I especially enjoyed with the interview, although I’m intrigued with the poverty center Senator Edwards helped form, I hadn’t heard of it before.

The show ended with another “Great Moments of Punditry”, which featured a discussion with Joe Scarborough and E.L. Woody from “Scarborough Country”. These segments should be done away with until they get some decent. I have a problem with their choices of material.