Obama to appear on The Daily Show

Here's the deal: Sen. Barack Obama will appear this Monday at 10 p.m. on Comedy Central "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart."

But, you may ask yourself, how would a cutesy doofus convey that information? For the answer, let's turn to Jeff Zeleny of your Chicago Tribune:

Obama bows at altar of 'Daily Show'

He's opened his heart to Oprah Winfrey. His name has been the butt of a Top 10 list on David Letterman. And like every other senator, he has shared his ideas with C-Span.

Never before, though, has Sen. Barack Obama genuflected on the hottest altar of political comedy: "The Daily Show With Jon Stewart."

But the junior Democratic senator from Illinois has accepted an invitation to appear on the Comedy Central program next week, show spokeswoman Renata Luczak told the Tribune. It will be broadcast Monday at 10 p.m. in Chicago and repeated three more times.

Politicians of all stripes eagerly await their chance to sit on the couch of "The Daily Show." Obama was first invited more than a year ago after he won his Senate race. But he did not agree to do the show in New York until now.

So let us review the facts:

• Sen. Obama was issued an open invitation to appear on "The Daily Show" over a year ago,
• Sen. Obama declined to accept the invitation,
• Mr. Zeleny himself reported that Sen. Obama skipped an appearance on "The Daily Show" to visit the United Nations in July,
• Sen. Obama recently accepted an additional invitation from "The Daily Show",
• gen·u·flect is defined as: 1) To bend the knee or touch one knee to the floor or ground, as in worship; or 2) To be servilely respectful or deferential; grovel.

But despite those facts, including those presented in the article itself, Mr. Zeleny for some reason decided to present the story as if Sen. Obama went to Comedy Central begging for the chance to appear on their program.

Does any one really think that is what happened? No matter what you think of Sen. Obama, there is no denying that the nation's only black senator doesn't have much of a problem attracting the attention of television cameras.

In the future, let's hope that the Mr. Zeleny and the Tribune leave the fake news stories to "The Daily Show."

(Thanks for the reminder TG)