Watch Jon Stewart Destroy the Media's Obsession with 2016

Hillary Clinton's email scandal is not great for her.

Of that, there's little disagreement — even after initial skepticism on Wednesday night's Daily Show, Jon Stewart agreed. As Secretary of State, Clinton shouldn't have used her personal email only. Now that she's been caught, she should release her emails, as she announced on Twitter that she plans to do so.

But trying to argue this will doom her 2016 chances? That's silly.

As Stewart argued in the clip above, with a resounding shout of "HOW?!" it seems impossible that this will affect her chances at the Democratic nomination for the 2016 presidential election. 

"Do you think maybe Wrong-Email-Address-Ghazi will be a big boost to her Democratic primary rival 'TBD'?" he asked. "Or perhaps this will affect Hillary Clinton's standing with Republicans in the general election, who pretty much already believe her and her husband to be treasonous, murdering griftosauruses?"

Stewart's point taps into a greater problem: The dogged attempts by press outlets to frame everything that happens to a likely presidential candidate within its potential ramifications for 2016. Certainly, this can be a good thing. A 2016 hopeful shouldn't think gay people choose to be gay, especially if he's a doctor. But the general election is still 20 months away, and the media's obsession with it has been slugging along practically since the day after the 2012 general election.

Again, like Stewart noted, Emailgate isn't good for Clinton. But more than that, it speaks for the standards and oversight in the State Department. That's the action the media should be calling for: reforming oversight programs. Instead, the focus is on a news story that the media will be talking about for another year and a half. Luckily, after that story, we can move on to the really important stories.

Or we'll just start talking about 2020.