There may be one thing Democratic and Republican presidential candidates can agree on: they’ve been saved lots of potential embarassment by the television writers’ strike which has forced late night TV talk shows into re-runs. 

That has allowed the candidates to escape merciless teasing about their campaign gaffes from Jay Leno, David Letterman, Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, as noted in today’s Washington Post:

Look at all the juicy targets that have passed without extracurricular commentary these past three-plus weeks. What would “Indecision 2008″ have done with Hillary Clinton’s comment about being able to stand the heat of the campaign because she’s “real comfortable in the kitchen”? What would Leno make of Mike Huckabee’s surge in Iowa (and his endorsements from both Chuck Norris and former pro wrestler Ric “Nature Boy” Flair)? What fun could “SNL” have with the news that arch-social-conservative Pat Robertson has endorsed Republican Rudy Giuliani, a candidate who: (a) is thrice-married, (b) once engaged in an openly adulterous affair, (c) is pro-abortion and (d) supports gay and lesbian rights?

If an irony falls in the primary and there’s no late-night comic to tell a joke about it, did it really exist?

There’s really no substitute to fill the parody void. Although the occasional JibJab satire will go “viral” on the Internet, the Web has no equivalent to Leno and Letterman for consistent political satire.

Our question is:  how will Generation X, Y and Z be in the political know without Stewart’s “Daily Show”??

–Photo credit: Reuters/Mike Blake