Jon Stewart, Dubbed The Most Influential Man, Interviews Obama Tonight

By Allison Kaplan Sommer October 27, 2010

President Barack Obama and Jon Stewart. One of the pair is the most influential man in the world, and the other hopes to sway young Americans to show up at the polls and vote Democrat on November 2 with a TV appearance tonight.

The most influential of the pair is not the President of the United States, but Comedy Central star Stewart, according to an online survey cited by the Wall Street Journal: “In a poll conducted by AskMen.com, ‘The Daily Show’ host took the number one spot, 20 slots ahead of President Barack Obama.”

The comedian-turned-pseudo-anchorman-turned political activist also beat out Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Steve Jobs and Kanye West in the poll, as the guy most responsible for shaping 2010.

This evening, President Obama will become the first president to appear on ‘The Daily Show.” The interview takes place as Stewart gears up for his “Rally to Restore Sanity” scheduled for Saturday in Washington, D.C. The event is expected to draw tens of thousands of participants, confirm Stewart’s popularity and, as CNN puts it, his “reach” to young Americans who ignore conventional news shows but enthusiastically tune in to Stewart’s comedic take.

Would he have succeeded on such a grand scale if he hadn’t taken a stage name and was still Jon Stuart Liebowitz? One can only wonder.

Allison Kaplan Sommer is a journalist at Haaretz, host of Haaretz Weekend podcast and co-host of The Promised Podcast.

A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

The coming year promises to be filled with more complex and historic developments. We are entering an era where independent, fact-based Jewish journalism will be more important than ever. We need to be ready for whatever 2025 will bring, and with your help, we can be.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO