Before there was Jon Stewart...

...there was Johnny Carson's political legacy as CNN's Judy Woodruff explains:

Before politicians rushed to book face time with Jon Stewart or announced their candidacy on David Letterman or Jay Leno...there was Johnny Carson.

Carson played host to seven United States Presidents and "thankfully for comedy," he said, eight vice presidents of the United States.

Often called "the king of late night," Carson was an equal opportunity needler, mocking politicians from Dan Quayle to the Kennedy family, and everyone in between.

He even gave former President Richard Nixon a second chance at making a television debut.

He welcomed the powerful, making them seem a little more like the rest of us.

"The Tonight Show" with Johnny Carson was the venue for Bill Clinton's mea culpa after his poorly received too-long convention speech in 1988.

In just one week, then-Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton went from being the butt of jokes to a media darling, after his appearance on The Tonight Show where Carson gave him a chance to show some self-deprecating humor.

In no small part thanks to Carson, CNN at the time cited Clinton for the "fastest turnaround ever" on its weekly "Winners and Losers."

But, Carson's sharp wit could also contribute to a candidate's downfall.

As The New York Times reported on Monday, it certainly did not help former Sen.Gary Hart when Carson began including him in his monologues.

"Mr. Carson's jokes about Mr. Hart's extramarital activities were surely not the only reason his political fortunes evaporated in 1988, but they were repeated often enough to have played some part," said the Times writers.

But for the most part, Republicans and Democrats alike appreciated Carson's equal opportunity jokes. And not even Carnac the Magnificent could say where Carson's own politics lie.

Along with his biting humor, Carson also brought grace and civility to the often competitive world of television entertainment and the even more competitive world of politics. And, perhaps that is his political legacy.

I try to be an equal opportunity offender.

Johny Carson served in the navy where he missed tragedy by two days. Just thing had he reported the two days earlier how much entertainment would have been changed. There's a part of Johnny Carson in everyone of us. For some readers, he was apart of their childhood. Sadly, I only got to know him through the clips they have shown on television since 1992. Or through Dana Carvey of SNL as this article reminds me. From Carson to Conan? Who will take over for Conan O'Brien when he moves up to The Tonight Show in 2009 when Jay Leno retires? I'm not even well-known so that takes me out of the running. I don't think they'll move Jon Stewart over to NBC in 2009. I can't even stay up that late unless I'm in the central time zone.

Senator Evan Bayh, a potential contender in 2008, has endorsed a bill that is anti-meth.

Bayh is backing SB103, that would require medicines with pseudoephedrine -- an ingredient used to make the illegal stimulant -- be kept behind pharmacy counters. People would have to show photo identification, sign a log and be limited to 100 cold tablets.

"Your ordinary law-abiding citizen I don't think is going to object," Bayh said.

Charles Krauthammer's take on Rice and Democratic politics:

Regardless of the sincerity of Kennedy's assertion, it carries heavy political risk. Kennedy, however, is long past aspirations for higher office. Among the 13 senators who opposed Rice are some thinking seriously of running for the presidency in 2008. Most prominent are Evan Bayh and John Kerry. And Barbara Boxer clearly used the hearings to raise her national profile. By using Rice to vigorously oppose the war, they all vie for the 2008 Howard Dean role -- albeit played calm and composed -- of unequivocal antiwar candidate and favorite of the party's activist left.

There is at least one even more prominent Democrat who clearly considers that calculation wrong. Among the list of Democrats who did vote for Rice is Hillary Clinton, steadily moving to the center with her relatively hawkish work on the Armed Services Committee, her recent conciliatory speech on abortion and now her unwillingness to go over the cliff in opposing the Rice nomination.

Was Johnny Carson the Frank Sinatra of comedy? Johnny Carson's great-aunt is still alive and they last saw each other 40 years ago? I don't know about you but 40 years is a long time to not even attempt to see family members.

The Great Carsoni I think this might actually say it all about the current late night television shows:

Today's late-night TV still pays homage to Johnny Carson. The format is essentially the same: an opening monologue; banter with an Ed McMahon–like straight man and a colorful Doc Severinsen–like band leader; a few skits and comic bits; interviews with guests who scoot down on the couch to make room for the next guest.

The major late-night players today are like individual fragments of Johnny Carson. His successor Jay Leno has his ordinary-guy accessibility. David Letterman has his surreal humor. Jon Stewart has the political satire (though the pseudo-news format of "The Daily Show" derives from another late-night pioneer, "Saturday Night Live").

Mr. Leno, under criticism for being soft on Republicans due to his friendship with California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, felt constrained, like Galileo before the Inquisition, to come out publicly and swear fidelity to the one true liberal faith. "I'm not conservative," he pleaded to Nikki Finke of the LA Weekly. "I've never voted that way in my life." He said he had no Republicans among his writers, some of whom worked as speechwriters for Democratic candidates. His advice to the Kerry campaign: "Make Bush look as stupid as possible."

Mr. Letterman is also openly liberal in his politics, but his barbs are defanged somewhat by his comic style, where everything is presented with ironic detachment. Mr. Letterman manufactures much of his humor, taking a live camera to order something in a delicatessen and inviting ordinary people to do "stupid human tricks." The hip cynicism—a pose appealing to young adults—has its own irony, weakening the cutting-edge cultural elite who can't take their own ideas all that seriously if they don't take seriously anyone else's.

Jon Stewart, of "The Daily Show," does. His format, a parody of network news, gives satirical commentary on current events and politics. Unlike the network anchors, Mr. Stewart is quite open about his bias. Instead of his usual schtick, Mr. Stewart gave a serious critique as a guest on CNN's conservative debate program "Crossfire" as "someone who watches your show and cannot take it." He said the shouting heads are "hurting America."

A measure of hope on the horizon for a return to the Carson-style grounding in broader American culture might be found in Conan O'Brien, who has been announced as Mr. Leno's heir to the throne of Carson as host of "The Tonight Show." Mr. O'Brien, whose show "Late Night" comes on after "The Tonight Show" on NBC, is also liberal politically. And though he makes a point of cultivating "irreverent" and sometimes crude humor, he is a practicing Roman Catholic who sometimes serves as his church's lector, reading the Scriptures in the service. And of all the current late-night hosts, he is the least afraid of violating the tenets of political correctness—unleashing a hand-puppet named Triumph the Insult Comic Dog on French-speaking Quebec.

But none of the current late-night hosts holds a candle to Johnny Carson, as they themselves admit. "All of us who came after are pretenders," said Mr. Letterman. "He was the best, a star and a gentleman." The other fly-by-nights, the crude Jimmy Kimmell and wannabes like Craig Ferguson and Craig Kilborn, just are not in his league. The political commentary has grown more partisan than Mr. Carson's, and the humor more "lavatorial."

And yet late-night TV remains one of the few national meeting grounds. For all of the audience segmentation and the multitude of television choices in this era of cable TV, the major broadcasters still command a huge and diverse audience late at night. Late-night TV is the prime source of political information for 8 percent of the public and a whopping 21 percent of 18- to 29-year-olds. But most of them have never watched Johnny Carson.

Six ways Johnny Carson reinvented television.