Although last night’s "Daily Show" interview with President Obama—the last Presidential interview with Jon Stewart in the anchor chair, close to the end of his hosting reign—felt a little like two old friends intentionally showing each other their best sides (in front of a studio audience), the episode-long chat touched on several important aspects of Obama’s last presidential term. 

The interview started out jovially, with Obama saying that he’s issuing an executive order to keep Stewart on as host. Soon in, they jumped to talking about the president’s latest work on global climate change initiatives: 

"I’ve got 18 months. There are a bunch of other things that we want to get done. Some of them we got started early…Climate change is a good example: Where we double our fuel efficiency standards on cars; increase solar power by 20 times. And now we got the Paris conference on climate change coming up later this year. And if we can get China and India and some of the other big countries to look at what we’ve already done and finally get something global, that would start addressing what is going to be."

Later, he talked about issues with the media: 

"First of all, the media is a bunch of different medias. There are some that get on my nerves more than others; I think that’s fair to say…I think [the media] gets distracted by shiny objects and doesn’t always focus on the big, tough choices and decisions that have to be made."

The President also addressed the growing cost of college education and financial influence in society: 

"The one thing I know, as I enter into the last year of my presidency, is that the country is full of good people, and there is a sense of common purpose at the neighborhood level, and the school and at the workplace. That dissipates the further up it goes because all the money and because of all the filters and all the polarizing that takes place in terms of how our politics take shape. But the only way to prevent that is by people getting involved."

Speaking on the Iran deal, Obama defended his actions by saying that "We have taken off the table what would be a catastrophic problem if they got a weapon."

Check out the first part of the interview above, and click below for the second and third parts.  

 

 

(H/t The Root, Rolling Stone)