| President Barack Obama took the case for his administration’s achievements to the friendly audience of the “Daily Show with Jon Stewart” Wednesday night, highlighting its record on health care, financial reform and revitalizing the economy.
“Over and over again we have moved forward an agenda that is making a difference in people’s lives,” he said during the a taping of the show in Washington that is scheduled for broadcast at 11 p.m. “We have done an awful lot that we talked about during the campaign.”
The interview with Stewart was part of the president’s push to reach out to younger voters, who were crucial to his 2008 campaign, before the upcoming midterm elections. “The Daily Show” averaged 1.1 million viewers between the ages of 18 and 49 this year, according to Nielsen Co.
It was Obama’s first appearance on the late-night show as president, though he was a guest in 2008.
For Stewart, it was the warm up to the “Rally to Restore Sanity And/Or Fear’’ that he and fellow Comedy Central comedian Stephen Colbert are sponsoring on the National Mall this Saturday. “The Daily Show” has been taping all week at the Harman Center for the Arts in downtown Washington, a short drive from the White House.
Settling in to a chair across from Stewart as the show began, Obama was quick with a joke about the set, with its desk designed to look like a part of the Capitol and a backdrop of monuments and swirling flags.
"It reminds me of the convention," joked Obama, slouching back, his jacket unbuttoned.
But Stewart’s focus was on the upcoming midterm election and what Obama has—and hasn't—done since entering the White House. At one point, he said that while Obama ran for president with audacity, the change he’s enacted has felt rather timid.
"John, I love your show, but this is something where I have a profound disagreement with you," the president replied. "This notion that health care was timid." Describing the broad impact of the health care reform legislation enacted by Congress, he said: "This is what most people would say is as significant a piece of legislation as we have seen in this country's history."
He added: "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.”
The tone was relatively serious during most of the show, which was entirely devoted to the interview with Obama. But at times Stewart played for some laughs.
At one point Obama began praising the performance of departing economic adviser Larry Summers, saying he has done a "heck of a job," using a phrase former President George W. Bush made famous when he complimented FEMA director Michael Brown in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
Stewart interrupted. "You don't want to use that phrase, dude," he said.
But Obama stayed serious when Stewart poked fun at his campaign promises, questioning where the change that Americans had voted for had gone.
“You ran on very high rhetoric, hope and change,” Stewart said, “and the Democrats this year seem to be running on, ‘Please baby one more chance.’”
Stewart asked Obama if a better campaign slogan might be ,“Yes we can, given certain conditions.”
“No I think what I would say is yes we can but --” Obama answered to laughter, “but it’s not going to happen overnight.
As the interview was ending, Obama made a joke about Stewart’s rally on Saturday, telling Stewart how he could have been more of a help to his cause - "if you had held a rally to restore sanity two years ago."
But he tried to end on a serious note: "Can I just make a plug? Just to vote."
Stewart, however, had the last laugh. "When you said, 'Can I just make a plug?' I was like are you dropping an album? What's happening?" he said. | 
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