Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) appeared on "The Daily Show" last night, telling host Jon Stewart his good judgment is more important than years of experience.

No one had a longer resume than "Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney and that hasn't worked out so well," Obama said.

Noting Obama's "inspirational" quality, Stewart deadpanned: "Is that really something America is going to go for?"

Obama tried to be funny, quipping about the weekend's debate: "It's always a shock to the system when Sunday morning you wake up and you're face to face with Mike Gravel," but also worked in his stump lines about attracting large crowds in Atlanta, Americans wanting new politics and no one asking tough questions before the war in Iraq.

Getting back to Obama's inexperience, Stewart asked: "Have you thought about running a smaller country first?"

Stewart had some fun with the excited crowd before Obama came on stage, telling the audience the senator and presidential candidate has "swashbuckled his way into America's heart."

At the mention of Obama's name, the producers played a little bit of "Hallelujah" and the audience erupted in laughs. When Stewart said the name of Obama's chief rival, Sen. Hillary Clinton, the producers played "Brick House." Stewart said he was torn between that and "SuperFreak."

Obama has been hyping his appearance on the show all month, and held a contest to choose supporters who would accompany him to Comedy Central's New York studios. Alyson West and Raina Moore got the tickets.

Clinton (D-NY) appears next week on CBS' David Letterman Show.

-- Christina Bellantoni, national political reporter, The Washington Times