LOS ANGELES -- The Academy Awards has a political comic, Jon Stewart, as its host this presidential election year, which leads to the following quiz: Which recent host said Oscar balloting "was the best kept secret in America, with the possible exception of what George W. Bush did in the '70s"?

		80th Annual Academy Awards "The Barbara Walters Special": 7 tonight on ABC, with guests Harrison Ford, Ellen Page, Vanessa Williams and Miley Cyrus. Red-carpet coverage: 6 p.m. on E! Entertainment and TV Guide Channel. Pre-show: 8 p.m. on ABC, with host Regis Philbin, plus Samantha Harris and Shaun Robinson. Telecast: 8:30 p.m. on ABC, with host Jon Stewart. Post-show: 12:05 p.m. (approx.) on ABC, "Jimmy Kimmel Live" with Jon Stewart, Ben Affleck and Mary J. Blige.

Chris Rock? Whoopi Goldberg? Stewart?

Nope, it was Billy Crystal, who is usually remembered for schmaltzy opening montages but who uttered that anti-Bush zinger during the 2000 election year.

Crystal, amazingly, may have been the most political host the Oscars ceremony has ever had.

Though television ratings have been down lately, the Oscars are still viewed by about 40 million Americans. One might think that Oscar hosts and the rest of (Democratic-leaning) Hollywood would use that huge stage every four years to talk presidential politics, but it rarely happens.

Most of the stage patter from recent Oscar hosts has been more like talk-show monologues, with some good-natured ribbing of candidates rather anything pointedly partisan.

And while there have been some famous political rants in Academy Award history -- Best Supporting Actress Vanessa Redgrave criticizing "Zionist hoodlums" in 1978; Best Documentary director Michael Moore calling Bush a "fictitious president" in 2003 -- they have not come during presidential election years.

At a post-writers' strike news conference 10 days ago, Gil Cates, producer of tonight's telecast, seemed to welcome political comments during acceptance speeches. "That 45 seconds is yours to do with what you want," he said. But Cates, a 14-time producer, has long winked at controversy to boost interest and ratings, just as he did in the run-up to Rock's one-off hosting gig three years ago.

Stewart, who serves as ringmaster tonight at the 80th Annual Academy Awards, was asked on the "Larry King Show" last week if anything political is off-limits. He said no but conceded that it's a no-win situation for the host.

"You'll never satisfy some people," he said on the CNN show. "Some people will say, 'You should have gone after Republicans'; others will say, 'Hollywood liberals -- I don't want to hear that stuff.' ... People's sense of humor goes as far as their ideology."

The gold standard for Oscar hosts the past generation, Johnny Carson, avoided presidential humor in the 1980 and 1984 election years. Not that he stayed away from presidents or risky humor: One day after Ronald Reagan was shot in 1981, briefly postponing the awards ceremony, Carson ribbed Reagan's acting career. "I bet he's up and around now," Carson said afterward, according to the book "Inside Oscar." (While talking about the history of hosts' political jabs, Stewart acknowledged "that great Reagan" by Carson.)

In April 1988 -- perhaps realizing that Jerry Ford jokes were stale -- host Chevy Chase avoided politics. But in March 1992, Crystal took a shot at the Republican vice president, saying "Today we have the first cartoon ever nominated, not counting Dan Quayle."

Four years later Goldberg took on Republican presidential nominees Bob Dole ("Oscar is 68 -- younger than Bob Dole") and Pat Buchanan ("Pat's the man who inspired the titles 'Dangerous Minds,' 'Clueless' and 'Dumb and Dumber.' ")

In 2000, Crystal made his crack about Bush's secretive 1970s -- when he was in the Air National Guard and struggling with alcohol abuse -- and in 2004 the eight-time Oscar host continued his Bush barbs.

Recalling his first hosting gig in 1990, Crystal said, "Things were so different then. You know how different it was? Bush was president, the economy was tanking, and we'd just finished a war with Iraq." Referring to his on-again, off-again history as host, he then said the Oscars "let me come and go as I please. It's kind of like the Texas National Guard."

Believe it or not, Stewart -- whose "Daily Show" on Comedy Central rose to prominence with his coverage of "Indecision 2000" -- may have a way to go before becoming the most political Oscar host ever.

"I can't help but be a little disappointed with the choice," Stewart joked when he was first tapped as host two years ago. "It appears to be another sad attempt to smoke out Billy Crystal."