Election Watch: Next Stop? The Daily Show

'"The Democrats, I believe, will take the House.The Senate is still up in the air and, eh, the President is still in office." That's how Jon Stewart helped warm up the audience before a special live edition of The Daily Show. Not that the crowd of around 250 needed much warming after being subjected to rock music at thunderous volumes. Lamenting the loss of his usual safety net – pre-taping the show at 5:30p – Stewart declared, just seconds before going to air, "I'm still drunk!" Special election analyst guest: Dan Rather. He was greeted by howls as if he were a rock star. His appearance was pretty much designed to extract some of his famed, folksy "Ratherism"”. After 55 years on television, Rather was a little stiff at on-air comedy, but still raised plenty of laughs when he declared that he felt like he was slumming,"a $4 gopher in a $2 pelt."  Faux right-winger Stephen Colbert, of course, was disconsolate about the Republican's loss of the control over Congress. "Tomorrow you're ell going to wake up in a brave new world. A world where the Constitution gets trampled by an army of terrorist clones, created in a stem cell research lab by homosexual doctors who sterilize their instruments over American flags."

By John Higgins