Before America got corporated on Tuesday, Jon Stewart decided to use the occasion of the soon-to-be Democratic blood bath to audition for Jay Leno’s job. How else to explain the banal and utterly contemptuous Jon Stewart Rally to Restore Sanity?

Stewart, as shrewd a media critic as there is working on basic cable, treated and tricked his left-leaning audience into believing that they were behaving as badly as the FOCS News crew. If only the left and right could get along? But how? How? The only solution: a lame rally in Washington 4 days before the howling banshees of greed took back their country.

Self-aggrandizing doesn’t begin to explain Stewart’s motive, unless you read the transcript from his closing remarks. He would have us believe that the Keith Olbermann is the equivalent of anybody on Fox. He would have us believe that MoveOn.org is the same as the Tea Baggers. Question: how many tea bag heads got stomped on during the buildup to the election? Answer: None, though, it may appear that many of them suffer from head wounds.

I know that host of the “Tonight Show” is the most coveted job that every comedian who has ever made a less than clever observation wet dreams about. Hell, I bet even Louie Anderson reminds NBC every week that he’s available under any circumstance. But Stewart probably heads a short list of possible successors anyway. He didn’t need to grovel the way he did at his Rally. He came dangerously close to reading small town news.

So where does he go from here? I mean, if NBC doesn’t offer him something (a right of first refusal) does he continue to water down “The Daily Show” by featuring even less of his correspondents? Does he ease up on Beck? Does he go “Jon Walking?”

With Conan starting on TBS next week, I’m not sure I’m going to stick around to see what Stewart does. He played nice with the sick bastards who want to give us voodoo Econ 101 one more try. Hell, maybe I’ll go back to reading books. Thanks, Jon.