Perfect score. (AP)
Is there any politician in the solar system as skillful or as talented on TV as Barack Obama? We've already cleared up the answer to that question here on earth - there isn't - but maybe somewhere out there, on one of the moons of Saturn, perhaps. But I wonder - could even that guy go on the most famous talk show of them all and still come off as effortlessly nonchalant, bemused, smart, engaged, and funny - genuinely funny - as our president did last night?
Forget about the content of the answers - sounded like the usual old political bullspin to me. But never has bullspin sounded so mellifluous or benign. Watch Obama on "Tonight" and you are left with the impression that this crisis - oops, CRISES - isn't so bad after all, but one of those bumps in the road that we will get over or around.
Honestly, it was an amazing performance. I noticed today that there was some press over some politically impolitic comment about the Special Olympics - that the president had proudly bowled a score of 129, and after Leno's eyebrows sort of arched, he joked about it being like the Special Olympics.
Why, if George Bush had said the same thing it'd be above the fold in the NYT, with a second story reporting that a Senate impeachment panel had been convened. With Obama - just a minor blip, almost instantly forgotten (as well it should be.)
What a near-perfect score for the prez otherwise. The best way to watch last night was "live," so to speak, when your senses were slightly dulled after a long day, and the brain had begun its slide towards somnolence. That's how late night TV - particularly Leno's "Tonight" - is supposed to be watched. The prez walks in, glides in actually, gives Kevin Eubanks a brief hug, like they're old friends, and Jay gets a nice, warm perfunctory one as well.
Just like this historic guest was just another movie star, selling another movie, and getting another pleasant non-confrontational sit-down with the guy who confronts NO ONE.
Not that the right-coast populist talk show hosts, Dave Letterman and Jon Stewart, would have been any tougher: They would have demanded a longer hug, if anything.
No reason to go over everything here - you saw it too - but the "American Idol" joke merits re-telling:
"Well, look, we are going through a difficult time. I welcome the challenge. You know, I ran for President because I thought we needed big changes. I do think in Washington it's a little bit like 'American Idol,' except everybody is Simon Cowell."
Imagine - taking an economic crisis and linking it to "American Idol."
And it worked.
Or this effortless pop culture linkage: How cool, Jay wondered, is it to fly on Air Force One?
"Now let me tell you, I personally think it's pretty cool - especially 'cause they give you the jacket with the seal on it..." But Malia and Sasha are "just not as impressed".
"The first time we went on Marine One, we were passing over the Washington Monument, circling around. Sasha looks over and she says: 'Are those Starbursts?'" because she thought she saw a box them over near dad.
Starbursts: The best touch of the night. If he had said "Gummy Sour Worms," most people woulda scratched their heads. If he'd said "M&Ms;," it woulda sounded like a product placement mention. If he had said "Mars bars," it woulda seemed like he was talking about a candy popular during the Second World War.
But Starbursts - a candy brand that kids (and parents) know as intimately as "SpongeBob Squarepants."
"They've got a whole other level of cool," Obama said of his kids.
And so do you, Mr. Prez. So do you.