Obama on the Late Show with David Letterman...

[Konfucious / Karthik]

Firstly, I'm not into politics, I don't like the concept largely due to what I have seen of it on/off screen, but I had to write about this because its something that made me think. The President of the US made an appearance on the Late Show with David Letterman.

Barack Obama is a very refined character, I like the way the man carries himself , one may argue that being a President he is expected to but after Bush it seems like a refreshing change. Lets talk about Letterman (his current antics aside), he has been in the talk show business for more than 25 years has had plenty of celebs on his talk show so there is no doubting his equity.

Obama spoke about being black, about unemployment, recession about health insurance and many other issues in a casual manner and the in-house audience loved it.

What intrigued me the most when I saw this episode last week was the fact that the President does not mind making an appearance on such a talk show, which made me think will a Manmohan Singh or a Pratibha Patil make an appearance on such a show??? never...(with no disrespect to either the Prime Minister or the President)

I could think of 2 possibilites:

One, the fact that all politicians have an air about themselves that they are above these things and that they need to be given Z-level security and all that jazz.

Secondly, the people may probably not accept it dismissing it as a publicity stunt...

Its not that politicians don't make appearances on TV, they are there all the time on News channels make allegations, arguing and canvassing for their respective parties.

Another point to note would be the concept of such talk shows are not really existent in India. The US has Letterman, Jay Leno, Conon O'Brein, Oprah, Ellen DeGenneres, Larry King, etc.
We have no one, probably Vir Sanghvi or Karan Thapar who have interviewed some key politicians but none in front of the public, not once have people got the chance to see their elected leaders get candid or have a normal conversation.

There are many things that our people criticize about the US but one can also learn a thing or two from Uncle Sam, humility being one of them...


Check this link out for the show...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LmE7tuR0364&feature=fvst




PEACE