Letterman and Obama: Overexposed

Look at David Letterman gazing at Obama.

I think Letterman is in love.


(President Barack Obama laughs during the taping of his appearance on the "Late Show with David Letterman" in New York, Monday, September 21, 2009. Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

Letterman adores Obama.

Although much of the interview was serious, Letterman didn't pose any tough questions to Obama. He didn't challenge him on anything. Letterman was a total suck-up.

David Zurawik, The Baltimore Sun, has an interesting take on Obama's Late Show appearance.

He writes:

Watching President Barack Obama Monday night on David Letterman, I couldn't help thinking: The TV thrill really is gone.

The excitement I felt seeing him the first time on a late night show with Jay Leno, for example, has been replaced by a sense lately that he is on TV everywhere all the time and saying the same thing over and over and over. One almost wonders if his senior staff shouldn't consider an intervention: No more TV for a while, Mr. President. Let's focus on this governing thing and stay off the tube. You're in danger of starting to feel like a rerun.

With all the appearances and less than inspired performances, it is almost as if the president has come to believe that if he just keeps showing up on TV over and over and over, his message will carry the day and he will regain control of the health care debate.

Monday night's stop on "Late Show with David Letterman" was only the latest example -- a replay of his five lackluster Sunday appearances.

Letterman teed up beachball questions for the president and when the leader of the free world didn't spike one home, the talk show host would jump in with comments like, "I can't tell you how satisfying it is to watch you work."

But I had heard the points made on Letterman already sounded on several channels Sunday morning -- and in prime time the Sunday before that on "60 Minutes" when this latest TV blitz started.

The pattern has come to involve the interviewer saying how ugly political discourse has become, and then asking the president if he thinks the criticism of him might involve racism.

And the president gets to go high road saying, while one can never totally dismiss the possibility of racism, that's not the deal for most Americans, as he sees it. After all, a majority did elect him.

As he explained it to Letterman: "I actually think that what’s happened is that whenever a president tries to bring about significant changes, particularly during times of economic unease, then there is a certain segment of the population that gets very riled up. ...FDR was called a socialist and a communist. JFK, there were all kinds of names hurled at him. Ronald Reagan, when he came into office, he was moving in a different direction and people were sure that he was bringing the country down. And so, this is not untypical. You know, one of the things you sign up for in politics is folks yell at you."

Nice job of linking himself to the FDR, JFK and Reagan. And nice company to be in. But he has hit that note before, and it is starting to sound too rehearsed.

Zurawik is obviously an Obama supporter.

Even for a supporter, Obama's TV blitzkrieg has been too much.

The reason watching Obama feels like watching a rerun is because he does keep repeating the same stuff.

While Letterman was fawning, Obama gave his well-rehearsed responses.

There's a problem when Obama fans are getting tired of him.

A few times Obama stepped in it, like when Letterman was expressing his fondness for socialized medicine in Canada, Great Britain, and elsewhere.

(By the way, did Letterman travel to Canada for his heart surgery?)

DAVID LETTERMAN: Whenever you invoke like Great Britain or Canada, people start to shudder because 'Oh, my God, it's socialized medicine. Oh, my God, it's socialized medicine.' And... and... I'm not a socialist, but it don't sound that bad to me.

OBAMA: Well it doesn't sound that bad to... to the... and it doesn't... it doesn't sound bad to Canadians. They're perfectly happy with their system.

That was close! Obama almost was caught on tape agreeing with Letterman, saying that socialized medicine doesn't sound bad to him.

Letterman almost tripped Obama up there. He should have known better than to lead Obama into saying something that is not on the list of talking points. The S-word is off limits.

I don't know why Canadians come to the U.S. for health care treatment. Why do they come here for procedures when they're seriously ill?

Weird that the perfectly happy apparently aren't happy enough.

Again, Obama was putting lipstick on his government-run health care pig.

We've heard it all before. Saying it on Letterman and on five different Sunday shows doesn't make it more palatable.

It's easy for elites like Letterman and Obama to push a nightmare health care system of lines and rationing because they know that they would never be subjected to it.

When Letterman ended the interview by saying how satisfying it is to watch Obama work, it really was embarrassing. Enough already.

Obama's appearance with Letterman had the feel of a well-worn infomercial, though some infomercials are more entertaining.