Refreshing

I'm not sure if it was a re-run, but today on The Daily Show, Jon Stewart hosted former U.S. ambassador to the U.N., John Bolton. The episode was noteworthy because of the interchange of ideas the two shared. It wasn't a ground-breaking debate, but it was a cordial exchange of ideas shared between two intelligent people in a respectful manner. None of the O'Reilly talk-over-the-opposition bullshit we're used to (or Lou Dobbs, or Larry King, or whomever you'd like to insert here). Naturally, Jon and John disagreed with each other on most points, but they made concessions on certain points and were always respectful.

It doesn't really matter to me what they were talking about specifically (in this case it was the idea of appointing a politically balanced staff, rather than an all Republican or all Democratic staff, among other things). Of note was the fact that professional, dispassionate discourse is possible between two parties, even on a comedy show. They didn't talk past each other. And that gave me hope.