But Dole has responded to the endless cracks about his age by challenging the late-night hosts to spend a day with him and see if they can keep up. But consistent with the center's usually critical stance on the media's political coverage, he decries stereotyping and ridicule. The media system now dictates that journalists beat up on a candidate and then comedians kick him when he's down. Dole is down and he's getting kicked. Needless to say, no one's laughing harder than the Clinton campaign.
Comic writers say they simply focus on qualities the audience can relate to.
The reason Clinton works is that the thing everyone has in common is sex and money. All they know is surface stuff - Clinton is the philandering guy, Dole is the old guy, Buchanan is the extremist guy, Forbes is the rich guy. Then again, audiences learn about politics, in part, from late-night comedy. In fact, Lichter points out, a Pew Research Center study shows that one in four Americans gets information about the presidential campaign from Jay and Dave and Conan. They say the jokes are not biased.