Why "The Daily Show," not "Intelligent Design," should be part of compulsory education

Christopher Hitchens is a piece of work. The "Bob Dylan goes electric" analogy here will probably make it clear enough to readers Of A Certain Age. Otherwise, let me charitably say he's a lifelong contrarian--a man who loves a good fight above all else and who, having exhausted all possible fist-fights with the right, and then with the left, is now riding out his career beating the crap out of himself.

In a different sort of way, "The Daily Show" host Jon Stewart is also a piece of work. One of his interesting features is that he really seems to want to get along with his interviewees, which doesn't always make his viewers happy with him.

On the other hand, if you're a "Daily Show" viewer, good for you--you're probably paying more attention to what's really going on than most people:

In a recent survey, viewers of Stewart's "The Daily Show" on Comedy Central tested better than Letterman and Leno viewers on a six-question politics quiz.

[. . . ] Viewers of all three shows know more about the background of presidential candidates and their positions on issues than people who don't watch late-night TV.

On top of that, "Daily Show" viewers know more about election issues than people who regularly read newspapers or watch television news, according to the National Annenberg Election Survey.

With all that in mind, take a few minutes to watch Stewart interview Hitchens on "TDS" last night.

Hitchens was there, ostensibly, to plug his new book on Thomas Jefferson, but only Stewart's courtesy as a host let that fact be wedged into the conversation. The rest was a serious go-round about historical context of the Iraq war, and Bush's defense of it, that would shame "Meet the Press."

Must see Tee-Vee.