I have a feeling that Obama, post-presidency, will regain the magic he had before he was president.
The weight and seriousness of the office and the need to keep secrets and absorb classified and horrific information daily, plus the need to maintain composure, avoid serious gaffes, and attempt however successfully or unsuccessfully to build a coalition in congress to get an agenda done, is all a massive hindrance to someone who is trying to be himself.
When Obama isn’t being the President he’s got much broader appeal. And I imagine that like past presidents he will be better at the sorts of things ex-Presidents do, such as diplomatic missions, championing causes, and gathering people together.
I look forward to post-presidential interviews. There’s a really likeable guy in there straining under the restrictions he’s had to impose upon himself.
I’d also like to see him speak very candidly about the utter nonsense the Republicans have brought to the table, blaming him for the lack of bipartisanship, when their mission statement from day one was to obstruct, delay, and make him one-term as their top political priority. I have never seen a more obstructionist opposition party nor one that plays the country like a zero-sum game that if they aren’t allowed to win, nobody is allowed to win.
He can’t really smack them right now because if he does, then he will get blame for failing to be diplomatic or attempting to work with them. Throwing in the towel altogether and just bashing the opposition doesn’t fly when you’re President. When you’re out of office you get more freedom pointedly pointing out how badly and how hungrily they slurp donkey balls.
What the hell is Avila’s problem? The fact that this is, as pointed out above, the top referrer for healthcare.gov shows that this was a remarkably smooth move by the Obama administration. And certainly both Obama and other presidents have done comic stuff before (the aforementioned Nixon appearance on Laugh-In or “Spielberg’s Obama” or Bill Clinton’s Final Days or the usual White House Correspondents’ Dinner shtick). If the presidency is so easily “damaged”, the country is in bigger trouble than we thought.
Don’t forget President Gerald Ford when his press secretary (and former newsman) Ron Nessen hosted Saturday Night Live in 1975. Ford taped two lines which appeared in the show. The first one introduced Nessen. “Ladies and gentlemen, the Press Secretary to the President of the United States of America.” Then on Weekend Update after Chevy Chase said, “Good evening. I’m Chevy Chase and you’re not.” “I’m President Ford and you’re not.”
The fact some people will find offense at Obama doing this is predictable and really of no consequence. A certain percentage of people find Obama’s existence offensive and will be indignant at anything he does.
Now, as to the comedic value of this, it’s excellent.
What I find interesting while watching it is that Obama actually is usually NOT terribly funny; he was seriously out-joked by John McCain at that New York dinner before the 2008 election, for instance. Obama is a bit too stiff and aloof when he tells jokes straight up. His delivery is not great. But “Between Two Ferns” is precisely the right role for him to bring the funny, because the entire premise of the show it that it’s awkward - most of the best jokes are Galifianakis asking something stupid and the guest just staring at him in confusing - and turns mean. The conceit of the series is that some idiot with a cable access show who pays his buddy a case of beer to work the camera somehow got a real celebrity and the celebrity spends the entire interview clearly thinking “I’m gonna fire my agent for this bullshit.” So it seems very real when he and Galifianakis almost immediately start sniping at each other. Of all the B2Fs this is probably the funniest.
Best line: “Why would you get the guy who created the Zune to make your website?”
I first knew about this because Limbaugh spent a half hour or more yesterday afternoon talking his audience down on how this wasn’t really a big win for Obama :dubious: