Barack Obama's appearance on The Tonight Show With Jay Leno got huge ratings - one of the four biggest nights in the 15 years of Leno doing Tonight, with numbers matching Leno's January 2005 Johnny Carson tribute. And, given Obama's Special Olympics crack/gaffe/prelude to a million apologies, these bonanza ratings are probably bad for Barack. Of course, the Barack Obama television express kept right on rolling with yesterday's 60 Minutes appearance, during which Steve Kroft noted Barack Obama's odd laughy/jokey demeanor, and asked if he was punch drunk.
If the Obama administration's goal was to get millions of people to watch the President on television, well, then, "Mission Accomplished." But should that be the goal? Or a more specific, longer question: on a week of nonstop financial calamity and turmoil, in which Obama became the first sitting President to guest on a late-night talk show and gave an eight-minute ESPN interview on his NCAA Tournament bracket, was Barack Obama's use of television effective?
A lot of people are questioning whether the President risks overexposure - but, from where we're sitting, that doesn't seem to be the question. Barack Obama is the most powerful man in the world, and a gigantic mega-star personality besides. Whatever he does will be covered on television. Of course, that will be news coverage, and the people who watch the news are not exactly the same as the people who regularly watch Leno and ESPN. But that begs another question: not to sound snotty, but should Barack Obama be spending time and energy trying to explain himself on TV to people who don't follow the news?
The answer seems to be yes - but not like this. Televised fireside chats are an excellent idea. As are the constant press conferences. But Obama being interviewed on ESPN about his NCAA Tournament bracket was God -awful; we swore we could faintly hear Nero fiddling. And The Tonight Show? That's a tough one. It's easy to second-guess after the Special Olympics comment, but, at least to this correspondent, it did seem like a pretty good idea beforehand. And it's important to remember that before that crack, Obama was great in the interview. Of course, that's the risk you run in going off-the cuff; there's a reason no sitting President has done a late-night talk show before. And what are we talking about now? The Special Olympics. Even without the screw-up, the question coming from the right (and some in the middle, and left) would have been "What's he doing in Los Angeles, anyway?" Whch is not a totally unfair question. The 60 Minutes piece was more standard President-on-television stuff - but there, Obama's awkward laughter may have undermined his many serious points - and those laughs have already been much-analyzed and critiqued. Barack Obama may indeed, be punch drunk - and not from the challenges of the administration, but the constant stream of television appearances this week.
In discussing the possible television overexposure of Barack Obama, Paul Begala on CNN dismissed the complaints, saying "If you've got Michael Jordan, you give him the ball." And that's cute. But it's wrong. Barack Obama is the Leader Of The Free World and a "Transformative Figure" to whom people naturally flock. So how about this instead: If you've got Michael Jordan, you don't need to draw up plays for him to score.You just get out of his way. The television strategy employed by the Obama administration this week - Leno, and especially ESPN - is the sort of thing you'd do to improve the image of a President you believe is smart, but has perceived personality deficiencies - dullness, or difficulty explaining himself succinctly. It's what you'd do if Al Gore or John Kerry were President now. Barack Obama is not Al Gore or John Kerry. So perhaps the best television strategy moving forward is no "strategy" at all, or at least not set-up informal scenarios which reinforce that the relaxed, cool guy is, sure enough, still cool and relaxed.
He's already got the ball. Just get out of his way.
