Hipster Obama Returns to Leno

The Obama of Old was back last night on Jay Leno.  After watching three debates, 90 minutes at a pop, it was startling to see an Obama who was not seething with rage at being called to account for his lousy record..  Plainly, Jay Leno evokes a different reaction in the president than Mitt Romney.

No more President Petulant -- just smooth, oily smooth confidence: Hey, I hang out with Beyonce and JayZ!  Hollywood is my second home! I belong here! He looked so at home, in fact, that it was unpresidential.

The contrast between Hipster Obama and Debate Obama made me appreciate a quality in Mitt Romney I had overlooked:  his constancy.  Romney's demeanor stays much the same regardless of context.

Obama, on the other hand, has been revealed in the debates as a phony.  That laid back guy, so cool, is at his core mean and condescending.  That ugly side was tucked safely away last night.

And no wonder.  Jay Leno was just shy of fawning.  To be sure, we expect him to be respectful of the President of the United States, no matter who holds the office.  Leno, however,  had the first opportunity to ask Obama about Donald Trump's offer.  Instead, Leno opened the segment with a lame joke:  I guess you're here to ask NBC to sell the network to Donald Trump, or something along those lines.

Obama later made a similarly lame joke that the reason Donald Trump doesn't like him is because when they were boys growing up in Kenya, they played soccer, and Trump wasn't very good.

Leno is no journalist; he doesn't pretend to be a journalist.  But comedy is about truth. He had an opportunity to get at the truth and he didn't even make an attempt.

I will not watch Leno again.  He's no conservative; we never thought otherwise.  I did, however think that he was fair, and patriotic.  Last night he proved me wrong.