'The Daily Show' recap: Marijuana, Australian Elections, and Rand Paul

The August 12, 2013 episode of the Daily Show focuses on presidential campaign length, marijuana and healthcare with Senator Rand Paul.

The episode begins with John Oliver discussing the recent news coverage of whether Senator Rand Paul would be running for president in 2016. Oliver argues that these campaigns do not need to take this long and the proof is Australia. The election in Australia is one month long. They have compulsory voting, and spend a huge amount of time and effort getting people to vote instead of wasting all this time on campaigning. Plus, people do not even have to miss the campaign shenanigans. The Australian election has a candidate accidently kissing the back of a woman’s head. One sexted his mistress a picture of his penis in a glass of red wine.

And then there is Stephanie Banister. She is every Saturday Night Live skit of Sarah Palin concentrated. She has said that Islam is a country, Islamic law is called haram (actually means sinful behavior), and that Jews follow Jesus Christ. Oliver says that in shorter elections, week one introduces a candidate. In week two, the candidate says something stupid. The media bashes the candidate in week three. The candidate drops out in week four. And there is no week five.

The second segment very briefly discusses marijuana. Dr. Sanjay Gupta has recently changed his stance on marijuana. He says that he believed the official reports on marijuana and has recently learned differently. Oliver shows some clips from coverage Gupta did on the medical uses of marijuana.

The guest for this episode was Senator Rand Paul (R – Kentucky) promoting his book, Government Bullies: How Everyday Americans Are Being Harassed, Abused, and Imprisoned by the Feds. Paul and Oliver spent most of the interview talking about Paul’s opinions on the Affordable Care Act. He thinks that it will actually take healthcare away from people. He even tries to say at one point that one reason Oliver would not want to go back to England is their healthcare. Oliver quickly corrects him and says that if he gets sick the first thing he is going to do is go back to England.