Jon Stewart Show: Having Delivered Nothing To Help America, In Fact Having Cost It Over 3 Million Jobs, Obama Reduced To Lie Of Saying Patience Is Required

The Hill:

President Obama took to The Daily Show on Wednesday as part of his effort to motivate the young voters who propelled him into the Oval Office in 2008.

The president, who faces a possible GOP takeover of the House in less than a week, told a sometimes critical Jon Stewart and frustrated Democrats that he is still in the process of delivering on his campaign pledges, and his supporters should be patient.

“When we promised during campaign ‘change you can believe in,’ it wasn’t change you can believe in in 18 months,” Obama said.

During the taping of the show, which was scheduled to air later Wednesday night, Obama defended his record and took issue with host Stewart’s accusation that the healthcare legislation was “timid.”

“”John, I love your show, but this is something where I have a profound disagreement with you,” Obama said. “This notion that health care was timid.”

Obama defended his landmark domestic agenda accomplishment, laying out the ways it has expanded coverage.

“”This is what most people would say is as significant a piece of legislation as we have seen in this country’s history,” Obama said. “What happens is it gets discounted because [the] assumption is we didn’t get 100 percent of what we wanted, we only get 90 percent of what we wanted — so let’s focus on the 10 percent we didn’t get.”

Obama’s visit to Comedy Central’s flagship show comes days before Stewart appears in Washington for the “Rally to Restore Sanity” on the Washington mall. The interview has been seen by some as an endorsement of Stewart’s rally.

Obama has been working to encourage frustrated Democrats to turn out for next Tuesday’s election, telling them that he is not finished and they should not give up.

The president continued in that vein Wednesday, telling Stewart that the change Obama promised in 2008 is “a work in progress.”

“I guess on all these issues, my attitude is if we are making progress step by step and inch by inch, then we are being true to the spirit of the campaign,” Obama said.

He added: “I would say yes we can — but it’s not going to happen overnight.”