Daily Show video: Peggy Noonan and Jon Stewart on our ‘epic political moment’

Jon Stewart and former Reagan/Bush I speechwriter (and current WSJ columnist) Peggy Noonan discuss the economy and the presidential race. Video’s below the jump; highly recommended.

An excerpt of Noonan’s remarks:

I think we are in an epic political moment… We are in a real economic crisis, and the American political establishment said we must do A, B and C to deal with it, And the American people looked at the entire establishment–the president, the speaker of the House, the secretary of the Treasury–and said no, we don’t trust you to handle this. We don’t trust you to do the right thing. The fact is, the American people, I believe, were right, but we’re still going to need a plan. But I think all of this lack of faith in Washington, lack of leadership in Washington, lack of impressive people in Washington, has left some candidates able to say essentially, vote for me–I never had anything to do with Washington. I don’t know a thing about it. Which is really not the best qualification.

I think it is also an epic moment in that we’ve never had a president before who, in the midst of a crisis, couldn’t come forward and talk to us. This is an amazing thing. I cannot help thinking that the president these days, as he talks about the economic crisis and the bill that was up for [a vote], that he seems more like a commentator on the event than a leader of the event. It is worrying.