The Daily Show, one had to believe, had fallen off. Sapped of his steady stream of Bush- and Cheny-isms, Jon Stewart exposed himself as just another starstruck commentator from the time President Obama became a major player in the 2008 presidential campaign. Stewart still hasn’t come up with a consistent angle on the new president, but I think he hit on something a few weeks ago; after playing a clip of Obama’s recent Gettysburg-esque speech on gas mileage, in which he rejects the notion that “our nation [is] too divided, our people too weary of broken promises and lost opportunities to take up a historic calling,” Stewart said, “don’t blow your load on mileage, baby. Save it for when the Chinese invade.”

Where were you the day political satire died? I was at home watching the inauguration, of course.

I saw it all go down. I watched President Obama address both America and the world with such purpose, integrity and humility that one thing became abundantly clear: he killed satire in cold blood.

With Clinton’s philandering and Bush’s floundering, the past 16 years have been an all-you-can-eat buffet of political buffoonery for columnists, pundits and comedians alike.

But the electoral process giveth, and the electoral process taketh away.

On January 20th I watched a green helicopter fly away with my meal ticket.