President Barack Obama made a visit to Jay Leno’s couch last night and I’m not sure that I’m okay with his decision to do so. I’m not like one of these people on the far right who is calling it the end of the presidency as we know it, but it does strike me as odd that when the country has hit a near-depression level in our economy that the President would be heading over to late night television.
I don’t know. Maybe it’s because this is something new for a President, but his loose attitude at Leno last night was a little bit much for me. Just as it was refreshing to have a President break that austere facade that we have grown accustomed to seeing from the Oval Office, I was a little uneasy that the leader of the free world was yucking it up on a talk show. And as for his comment about the Special Olympics, it was absolutely insulting and another in a line of gaffes from the Obama/Biden combination.
It seems to me that the President hasn’t really evolved from that campaign mode into the leadership role that he needs to assume. He needs to stop worrying about whether or not people like him and get back to swinging the hammer at against the “Washington-as-usual” crowd. Then you have the inherent bias against the Republicans where if a Republican President had visited Leno he would have been universally panned and if he had made the Special Olympics comment he would have been told to resign from office.
It just made me uneasy to have the President on late night television when there is so much crap going on in the country that need strong leadership right now. You can read an even better description (with links from around the blogosphere) about what President Obama’s appearance on The Tonight Show means at Fausta’s Blog.
I don’t so much have a problem with the President appearing on a late night talk show, as I really don’t see it hurting anything in the long run, nor do I see it sacrificing the idea of preserving the Office of the Presidency. I don’t mean to take anything away from what being President means… I understand that being the leader of the free world has a lot of weight and importance. Regardless of the position, Obama, Bush, Clinton, or whoever happen to consume the title for the time, are regular people in my opinion, no more special than you or me. Everything about the presidency and Congress and our government, in general, has evolved into the thing that our founding fathers were hoping to prevent. The fact that Obama, at the very last, has made attempts to appear more down to earth, I feel, is a good thing. Going on the Tonight Show kind of falls under the “trying to appear more down to earth.” Now, if only he wouldn’t have made that stupid comment about the Special Olympics. Absolutely dumb on his part… now I know why he insists on following a teleprompter.
I’m fine with the President (or whomever) being seen as a regular guy – that’s what got George Bush over with the people, too. But it just seems to me that if you spend all day ranting and raving about how you “inherited” a disaster that is affecting millions of American lives, then you probably should be spending every waking moment trying to find a way to fix that “inheritance” and helping those lives.
Spending an hour of your day making a trip to The Tonight Show might not be the highest and best use of the President’s time these days.
Hell I think its good to see one of them out of there comfort zone of the white house and put on a spot not behind a the same group asking the same old questions.. He was in LA already for something with Gov.Terminator.. Hes not going to be what we are use to for a Leader… He seems to do his own thing his way and dont care who he pisses off..
A perfect reply! Thanks for taking the toulrbe.