Heeere's Johnny!
Mark the date on your calendar. March 19th, 2009. The President of the United States appears on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. Any lingering questions I may have had about our new President, and his ego, are answered. Additionally, any lingering questions I may have had about getting older and morphing into an old codger, are also answered. I suppose I'm officially and "old-timer" now, hanging on to old ideals, old notions of dignity, old notions about the import of the Oval Office.
Jay Leno is a great comic, and a great guy, as far as I'm concerned. Bless him for securing the guest of all guests, and an affable one at that. Obama's gaff, comparing his, I believe, bowling score, to that one might expect to see at the "Special Olympics", paled, in my opinion, to the gaff of appearing on a late-night television show.
Clearly, most people were enthralled with the notion that he is "just like us". That he should share the same seat as Ellen DeGeneres, Martin Short or any other of a long list of Tonight Show guests, is somehow unsettling to me. In fairness, had McCain been elected, and opted for the same appearance, I would be equally dismayed. Look, it's one thing when you're a contestant for "American President", and make no mistake, this presidential campaign was, in many ways, as insipid as that popular singing contest. However, I think, having won the title, the playing field dynamics should change a little bit.
Like many Americans, I was a devout Johnny Carson disciple. There never was, and will never be, another like him. Johnny had the whole package. Scamp, gentleman, father, husband(repeatedly), party-boy, but a sincere and sensitive guy with a sense of comedic timing that is unrivaled. I wonder, what he would think. Would he think..."nice get", or, "the times they-are-a-changin'..."? I appreciate the venue, but unlike a new stand-up, relishing the opportunity of a Tonight Show appearance, what is it Obama was trying to achieve?
One could surmise, amidst his sinking poll numbers and the melee that has erupted over his massive spending and bailout bills, the AIG bonuses, the fact that Tim Geithner may as well be on fire, that his Cabinet is still not filled for lack of entrants without a history of tax-fraud, that Obama simply felt he needed to calm the masses with a charming appearance on the most-watched late-night show. Doing what he does best...charming the pants off of anyone listening or watching.
Aside from the cheapening of the office, of the title of President of the United States, it is uncouth simply given the seriousness of the times. I, for one, would appreciate a more demur tone coming from Washington right now. Every conceivable part of our fabric, of our culture, is unwinding faster than a ball of yarn in a twister. For the first time in recent history, regular folks are taking to the streets with signs, and they are angry. Not the usual special-interest groups who seem to have open-schedules for picketing and an uncanny ability to gather ten thousand people at the drop of a hat. No, these are your neighbors, possibly with more flexible schedules as the result of a layoff, and they are really pissed off.
And we should be. An endless litany of financial scandal has rocked this country to the core. The folks we elect to watch over the workings of the country, are, apparently, either all blind, or all bought-and-paid-for. Thousand of Americans, many of them elderly, lost everything to a Wall Street financier that worked his evil unimpeded by the very government agency meant to prevent such a thing from happening. Too many scandals to list, and the bill for all this? In the lap of the average American worker, already reeling from two years of oil costs that were off the chart, and sure to return.
Simply? It is not the time for light banter. It is not the time for the expense of shuttling the President to a television appearance and all the costs that go along with it. You know, for a guy who campaigned as "one of us", he sure has developed quite a swagger, or, as Rickie Lee Jones said of her crush, "Chuck-E", this "cool, inspired, sort-of-jazz when he talks...". Sadly, for the rest of us, it's becoming more of a stagger, than a swagger. Change? Still waiting, Mr. President.
Karl From New Hampshire