For shows that traffic in commentary on current affairs, a presidential election is welcome news. Campaigns are a seemingly never-ending source of material, particularly when you consider that we've been talking about the various candidates since early in 2007.

But in another sense, the finale to a campaign season poses challenges to the good people at The Daily Show With Jon Stewart and The Colbert Report, because pop culture in general is saturated with commentary on the election. What can shows like this tell us about Sarah Palin that we didn't already hear on our Morning Zoo drive to work, or read on our favorite blogs? For the reigning kings of televised political humor to stand out, the bar has to be raised.

What's curious about Comedy Central's current affairs bloc, with the election now just a month away, is that both shows have in the past two weeks largely turned their attention to something besides the election: namely, the financial crisis and the iffy prospects for passing bailout legislation. It's as if there is, at long last, nothing new and funny to say about Barack Obama, John McCain, or even Palin, meaning that any story that represents a chance to change the subject and flex new comedy muscles is seized upon. When words like depression are being tossed around with serious intent, you learn what you're really made of as a comedy writer.

The intersection of the campaign and the Wall Street crisis has also been a source of humor. McCain was once a favorite guest for all the late-night comedy shows, to the point where his campaign once felt it might be able to neutralize them if not put them squarely on his side. But in part because things haven't been going well for him and in part because Obama remains hard to lampoon, programs like The Daily Show have been merciless of late. Stewart went after McCain for appearing to contradict himself in the space of a few seconds: "Now is not the time to affix the blame? You should mention that to your previous sentence," zinged Stewart, referring to a McCain speech on the crisis.

Stewart is also continuing to spotlight his cast of regulars. Relative newcomer Kristen Schaal has been using her pixie features and voice to great effect, posing as a feminist supporter of Palin and asking the editor of the magazine Foreign Affairs, "The Middle East. It's crazy over there -- why is that?" Other recent highlights included Rob Riggle reacting to the first debate as the head of "Americans For More Swearing," and "Senior Black Correspondent" Larry Wilmore on whether McCain really qualifies as the black candidate in the race: "McCain's been showing me some flava lately. He's angry at The Man; thinks the media's out to get him. Which of the candidates has been doing his job for 26 years, waiting to get a promotion, and then some inexperienced Harvard egghead comes in and snaps it up? Oh yeah, I think McCain's feeling pretty black right now!"

Colbert has beaten the odds by making his Bill O'Reilly parody last for much longer than anyone could have imagined it would, because he eventually broke out of that pure parody mold. Whereas once you had to work a little bit to see that Colbert was poking fun at the conservative media by pretending to be a part of it, much of The Colbert Report now traffics in jokes like one would see on The Daily Show, such as Colbert's commentary on how those impacted by the hard time on Wall Street can survive in the new economy: "Instead of picking stocks, now they can pick strawberries. And hedge fund managers can finally live up to their name, trimming hedges." The positive stock performance of Campbell's soup, said Colbert, is a sign that "it's a good time to be selling meals that cost 89 cents."

The Colbert Report that aired after the vice presidential debate (but was taped before it) had Colbert's take on what had not yet taken place. "Holy lord, what a gaffe by Joe Biden!" Colbert erupted. As for Palin, "She hit it out of the park, or as they say in Wasilla, she hit it all the way to Russia!" There's no way these guys want Palin to lose.

There is a question, however, of how these programs, both of which cater to a liberal audience, will fare in a potential Obama administration. The Daily Show existed in the Clinton years, but didn't truly take off until it had George W. Bush to play off of. If you have a Democratic president and a Democratic congress, your political jokes are going to have to be about Democrats unless you want to lose total relevance. Both shows may have to go out and hire some writers who are more natural at doing just that. But their respective reactions to the financial crisis does raise hopes that even after the votes are cast, The Daily Show and The Colbert Report will find plenty to laugh about.

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