The New York Times reports on Barack Obama's seventh appearance on Jon Stewart's "The Daily Show":
In a segment that officials at the show said would appear only online (the episode was scheduled to be broadcast at 11 p.m. Eastern time), Mr. Stewart grilled the president on why government does not work more effectively.
"Government works better now than it ever has, given what we ask it to do," Mr. Obama said in response to a series of questions about lapses in service delivery by the Department of Veterans Affairs.
"We've been able to systematically add resources to the V.A.," Mr. Obama said, echoing remarks from earlier in the day in a speech at the Veterans of Foreign Wars' national convention in Pittsburgh. "You still have this massive structure with millions of people being served."
Mr. Stewart offered more of his trademark skepticism, contending that Veterans Affairs was an example of an agency that should be doing better, especially more than six years after Mr. Obama took office.
To counter that, Mr. Obama cited the I.R.S., which he said had been underfunded by Congress. He said critics, including Mr. Stewart, had been too quick to believe that employees at the revenue service had singled out conservative groups for extra scrutiny.
Hmm. I wonder why that segment is online only.