Barack Obama

to the point where it's politically useful as well as likely to produce results, to 'harsh' on Congress, he can ask the three major networks for five to ten minutes. They'll move their commercials around and accommodate him, like they used to in the old days. Personally, I think the eight o'clock window pulls in the most viewers, though you have to be careful to not cut into Final Jeopardy--that pisses people off. So you grab the seven fifty nine to eight oh four or five window--people don't miss a thing. The cables WILL pick it up, and he can look into the camera and speak his mind. Johnson and Nixon did it a lot, to decent effect. Bush did it from his "ranch" aka "pig farm" to tell us that he was shitting on funding of stem cells. I think the President Behind The Desk At The Oval Office is a grand tactic, but it should be deployed rarely--either national emergencies, or "I'm mega-pissed and you should be too--AND we have a way to fix it." Right now, the GOP Congress can block any "fix" efforts. We need more Dems in the House--badly.

But this was a very nice, very easy, very personable interaction with Leno--it was Obama at his best. He hit EVERY point, with clear, quotable details, and he didn't back away or fluff off any of his responses. Home run.