For most, Tuesday night offered a fun, lighthearted moment. President Obama appeared on NBC's "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon," and among other things, "slow jammed" the news. In the process, Obama used the opportunity to urge Congress to extend lower interest rates on student loans, a top White House priority.
I realize we're in a political environment in which every move the president makes will draw reflexive criticism from the right, but the pushback on this is pretty silly.
Fox News has responded to President Obama's appearance on NBC's Late Night with Jimmy Fallon by suggesting that Obama is somehow denigrating the office of the presidency. For instance, today on Fox & Friends, co-host Gretchen Carlson said that it's "nutso" for Obama to go on "these comedy shows" because it "lowers the status of the office."
On the April 23 edition of the show, Fox News host Dana Perino -- a press secretary for President George W. Bush -- said that Bush had "a very different outlook on these comedy shows. He liked them, he respected them, but he never went on during his presidency."
Carlson said that it's "hard to believe that in 2012, we have presidents and candidates considering to go on these comedy shows, and even host, like, Saturday Night Live."
Actually, it's not hard to believe at all. George W. Bush appeared on a game show in 2008; Bill Clinton talked about his underwear on MTV in 1994; and my personal favorite, Richard Nixon appeared on "Laugh In" to deliver the show's signature catch phrase in 1968.
Not only is there precedent, it's not even especially new for Obama, who, as president, has also appeared on "The Daily Show" and "The Tonight Show." The stature of the presidency endures.
And yet, not only is Fox News complaining, but the Republican National Committee is launching a web ad going after the president for his "Late Night" appearance.
There have to be better things for Republicans to complain about.
Update: Rush Limbaugh complained about this yesterday, too.
Leave a Comment:
Reality is that Romney wouldn't even command "scale" for a visit on any of these shows, even Faux News.
"There have to be better things for Republicans to complain about"
There are and they do. They even go so far as to complain about stuff the president does that exists only in their own bubble. Now might be a great time for the Dems to run an ad featuring a collage of their silly faux fainting spells interspersed with clips of 2-year-olds throwing tantrums.
great idea for an ad. i like it :)
Oh please. If this is how low the republicans need to go to bash Obama they're more desperate than I first gave them credit for.
BTW, has Mitt Romney released his long form birth certificate to the media yet? I'm still waiting. Could it be he's a Muslum? Iranian? Gawd, North Korean? So far we have no proof he's a US citizen.
Well his dad did move the family to "Mexico", so maybe we should ask Mittens for his "papers please"?
Zora that would be his father the family moved from Mexico. Mitt great grandfather moved to Mexico so he could practice polygamy. So the argument could be that Mitt's father George moved to the US to make Mitt an anchor baby.
Read Doonesbury this morning? I agree with Gary Trudeau, Listening to FOXNEWSCHANNEL is like getting the news from the town's drunk!
Pass the word, we can now officially start a drinking game to the FOX broadcasts and feel a sense of what it's like to live in their world! -Kevo
Republican desperation.
Truth is, the Faux Nooze and RNC complaints work just fine for me. They provided a much larger audience for both the performance and, more importantly, the message than it would have had otherwise.
Miss Amerika, Steve Goofy, Brian Dillweed et alia believe, truly, they are being oh so superior and sophisticated in their denunciations but they are wrong. They are simply proving they are what they are: Three third-raters on a worn sofa in the basement of the News Corp. building early in the morning.
The RNC complains about everything. Now it is the MONEY the President spends to travel to the States. AND all over the right wing blogs is accusations of FRAUD that the President gave a 'campaign speech' on Fallon and violated campaign laws. I believe their TRUE purpose is to denigrate the President and fix in the voter's minds that he actually ISN'T the President and subject to the same 'limits' that Romney is. I tried to explain that he is indeed the President and that he was discussing student loans at colleges and I was attacked as drinking 'the brown koolaid'...honestly it's ugly out there. I think they honestly thing that if they keep this up the voters won't see how they have NO PLATFORM. NO SOLUTIONS.
Mego wrote: "all over the right wing blogs (are) accusations of FRAUD that the President gave a 'campaign speech' on Fallon and violated campaign laws"
I didn't know there were any campaign laws left to break. I thought the Right Wingers have, by their own actions, displayed there are no rules.
Take Note: Whenever you hear a Right Winger complaining about somebody doing something wrong its a flag for others to look at the Right Wing and see how the Right Wing has set the precedent for said behavior. Because if there is only one thing we know its that the Right Wing complains about that which they themselves are the most guilty.
I think the GOP's new slogan should just be, "Get off my lawn." It sums up their entire attitude about everything. The world is changing and they don't like it.
Were they this upset when Romney appeared on Letterman in December 2011? (Or doesn't that count because Romney was only the presumptive nominee at that point?)
They're just pissed because Romney can't construct a sentence, ad lib, or be funny.
While personally I might have wished that Nixon had never done that, or some of the other examples, they are now customary. I doubt if FAUX protested John McCain's appearance on Jimmy Fallon on Sept. 14, 2009.
And nobody, sadly, protested the following :
That was an imdb summary of the WWF Raw "King of the Ring" show in 2008. At that point 'dignity... whas that?'
The examples you give though, and mine, except for the Clinton MTV apperance involved candidates or ex-Presidents, not sitting Presidents.
(As is pretty obvious, I am somewhat of two minds about this. I hardly agree with FAUX om their specific comments, but I really wish Obama hadn't done as much of this as he has. "Dignity" doesn't have to be stuffy -- I can still quote lines from "The First Family" and remember how good that laughter was for the country -- but there have been times when I have wondered if Obama got a little too caught up in the celebrity aspect of the Presidency.)
My mistake, read too fast and thought it was GHWB on the game show, not W as sitting President. After thst, well, Fallon at least deals with some news content...
You know this is really getting tired for Fox news to continue with their same old schnick of disparaging this POTUS. We can keep highlighting all their hypocrisy to show them for the fools that they are, but their audience will continue to watch. I do hope that audience is few enough and discouraged enough with their nominee Mitt Romney to just stay home. But I also know that Fox will rev up the fear and hate machine right in time before the election to get them out to the polls against Obama. Freaking ridiculous!!!
This kind of things reminds me of the petty crap they used to go after Obama for when he first got into office. Good to see that 4 in years the Republican attitude hasn't changed.
ReservoirAngel....So true. I can still remember watching Fox news almost four years ago with Hannity criticizing the then new President Obama for a hamburger run where he put grey popoone mustard on his hamburger...WTF??? Why would someone criticize MUSTARD?????? I knew then that that supposedly "news" station was a farce and straight up propaganda for the republican party. I have not watched them since, just freakin ridiculous!!!
My favourite Fox News "scandals" about Obama were him taking his jacket off in the Oval Office, and him putting his feet up on the desk. Apparently that showed a disrespect for the office of the President... then they mysteriously shut up when someone pointed to pictures of George W. Bush doing the exact same thing.
Well, most of them shut up. I encountered one guy the other day who claimed that Bush putting his feet on the furniture was fine because he didn't do it a lot but "the frequency with which Obama does it indicates disrespect for the country, or maybe even a treasonous attitude."
I really wish I was making that up.
My favorite: The "Secret Muslim Greeting" exchanged between Barack and Michelle that we, here on Planet Earth, call a "fist bump" :)
ReservoirAngel....Was that not crazy?
NextMSNBCStar....I remember that craziness too. I'd like to see Rachel do up a collage of all the crazy, fake controversies that Fox generated.
Ah yes, the "Terrorist Fist Jab". I remember it well.
In other words, Bush was a white guy so it was OK.
Shorter Fox Noise...
Uppity n!gger. Why can't he be more like Juan Williams our house n!gger?
Or Herman Cain, and just sing old negro spirituals!!!!!!
lol..Blazing Saddles flashback
They're just mad as hell that Obama received a rock star's reception, when their candidate keeps putting his foot in his mouth.
Rock Star??? Hell, his reception was so far beyond what a rock star gets that it brings tears to your eyes. They open the curtain and Obama is standing there and the audience goes WILD, on their feet clapping for way beyond what anyone but the original Beatles would get. Then he introduces himself.
I loved it!!! But I was actually surprised by how serious Big O came off during his spoken-word flow. When he's in his funny groove, he can be real 'goofy' (remember the "spilled milk" joke during the SOTU?). But I guess he spoke his peace and let Jimmy and the Roots do the comedy - fair enough. A nice mix of humor and politics, backed by some sexxy music!!!!
I can see why the Righteous Right and Faux Newz would be outraged: Look at Obama, out there relating to people and making himself appealing to the hordes of unwashed, lowly masses of late night teevee viewers. Appealing to or represent his citizens is just beneath the POTUS, right?
I was a little disappointed that Obama didn't do his little Al Green thing, just for sh!ts and giggles...
Gretchen Carlson?? Give me a break, .... really?
BIGBEAR1....And then when they play back the video of her saying just the opposite when GWB did it...real hypocritical.
There are two very real reasons that Republicans should object to the Slow Jam - one, listen to the reception from the audience; two, listen to the message. Obama now owns the move to lower or at least control student interest loan rates. Youth vote, anyone? Anything that comes from the right now sounds like capitulation or extreme wannabeism. In chess, it's called a fork. In eleventh-dimensional chess, we'll call it a slow jam.
Speaking of what hypocrites the GOP is, I just saw on Chris Jansing how when KERRY flip flopped it was because he was taking two opposed positions on two different days. But when ROMNEY does it, it shows how flexible he is and 'open' to new ideas. Uh huh.
I enjoyed it.
But man, was the president up tight. I would have loved if he had some better puns or something.
Oh well, I guess part of the president is conservative after all.
Campaign commercials cost a bundle to air, and reach just a few-(skeptical)- viewers.
One has to be severely stupid to pass up the chance to reach millions- for free!
He didn't do anything revolting, lude, off-putting, or disrespectful. I think this makes the president relatable to present-day society, A.K.K his voting public. He's not all stuffy, up high on an ivory tower, when he does things like this, but he still acts with an aire of dignity. I mean, no one really got all "up in arms" about Prez. O singing "Sweet Home Chicago" at the White House blues dinner. He had the Rolling Stones & BB King perform in the White House. He'll he's also been on the cover of Rolling Stone Magazine.
But Jimmy Fallon... Jimmy Fallon broke the camel's back, hmm?
So they expect us to believe that if Romney was that cool, they wouldn't be working it?
This just proves that not only do the tealiban not have any humor, they have no common sense (when God was handing out common sense, the tealiban thought God meant pennies and couldn't be bothered with chump change).
I would like to see Obama on the Colbert Report. They could have a field day poking fun at the Republicans and Fox News. I can't think of a better way for the President to respond to a lot of the silly claptrap that is spewed. And it will have a bigger audience than the White House Correspondents Dinner.
Does anyone remember W at the end of his presidency taking his "victory lap" attending an international conference with various heads of State? Does anyone remember him at an official dinner slouching in his chair talking with his mouth full as little bits of food spewed from his mouth? Well I do. Talk about disgracing the dignity of the office of the POTUS!
Also on a history note. Nixon appeared on Laugh-In shortly after he resigned. He looked at the camera and said: "I know I told you to `Sockit to me'. Well you can stop now"
That was the only time I ever saw a glimpse of humor from Nixon.
MariaBlumberg-
How about Bush's appearance at the Beijing Olympics when he looked like he was falling down drunk? Or patting the female Volleyball players on the rear end?
Remember his giving Angela Merkel of Germany a friendly shoulder massage? She looked like someone had just tasered her. So much for the dignity of the Presidency.
rwsgate
Anglea Merkel looked like she was going to deck Bush! That shoulder massage is the kind of thing that (and the butt pat) can get a person a sexual harassment charge. I mean really the man was embarrassing.