President Obama speaks in a prime-time address to the nation on July 25 from the East Room of the White House. (Jim Watson - AFP/Getty Images) As the deadline to raise the debt ceiling fast approaches (just check The Post’s rather ominous countdown clock), President Obama addressed the American people Monday and asked them to call their representatives in Congress.

This is a rather embarrassing strategy, according to the “Daily Show’s” Jon Stewart. “Did the president just quit?” he said of the idea. “Seriously, you’re the president. You’re asking us to call Congress?”

“I actually feel bad for the president,” an exasperated Stewart said. “He interrupted “The Bachelorette” to be like, ‘Could you call your congressman? I can’t talk to these people.’ ”

To be fair, Stewart didn’t have kinder words for House Speaker John Boehner, or as the host dubbed him, “the world’s saddest tangerine.” While Stewart faulted Boehner for his “big government, small people” rhetoric and not acknowledging the previous decade of spending, he took particular interest in the speaker’s assertion that the stimulus has mostly provided fodder for late night comedians.

“Are you kidding me, Boehner? You think comedians enjoy fiscal incompetence and bureaucratic paralysis?” Stewart said, before showing a picture of what they actually love: Rep. David Wu, who will resign over allegations of an unwanted sexual “encounter,” in a tiger suit.

Watch both clips from “The Daily Show” below: