Not the One We've Been Waiting For

Marc Tracy sees an enormous lost opportunity in the Not-the-March-On-Washington last Saturday:

While the rally's opportunity cost was arguably great--a liberal could plausibly see it as a gigantic missed chance--it was basically a poorly run party that confirmed Stewart's downward trajectory from exciting comedian to, at times, important political spokesperson to, now, the second and no doubt lesser coming of Al Franken. Stewart's somber, deeply boring speech, which lectured the press that it ought to "hold its magnifying glass up to our problems, bringing them into focus, illuminating issues heretofore unseen," was so trite and bland that it cannot be taken seriously even by not-serious people. It was as though Stewart were determined to be for the mushy middle what Colbert is for the Fox News right: a parody. And even this character was undercut every step of the way by Stewart's need to be the comedian, the better to excuse himself for not taking a stronger stand. "The press is our immune system," he declared. "If we overreact to everything we actually get sicker, and perhaps eczema." Chuckles.