President Obama appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live last night. Some people hate that Obama does these “soft” appearances, but every president does softer interviews at this point. I feel like most of the complaints about Obama’s late-show appearances are because he’s actually good at being self-deprecating, funny and interesting, and he appeals to the younger demo.
Here’s Obama reading “mean tweets” – some of these were actually sort of funny. I like that Kimmel didn’t choose the really terrible tweets. Not that he ever does with other celebrities, but I feel like the “TCOT” tweeters really go crazy bashing Obama and Kimmel just ignored them.
In the real interview, Kimmel asked Obama about everything that’s been going down in Ferguson, Missouri. After the Department of Justice released their scathing and shocking report on what has been going down in and around Ferguson’s police force and local leadership, the people of Ferguson have been (justifiably) protesting. Many significant figures have stepped down (or been fired). Then on Wednesday night, two police officers were shot in the middle of a protest near one police station. The police officers are out of the hospital now and expected to make a full recovery, but Obama had to walk a fine line – he had to show support to the protesters (he says that what was going down in Ferguson was “worthy of protest”) while still making the argument that violence against police officers is never acceptable.
And in this part, Kimmel asks Obama about his daily life. The funniest part is when Kimmel asks whether Obama ever drives and they have a funny exchange about birth certificates and Kenyans driving on the other side of the road.
This is just a little part where Kimmel asks Obama about Kanye. Obama says he’s only met Kanye twice and that he doesn’t have Kanye’s home number.
I don’t mind him doing soft interviews. It’s a chance for him to showcase his charm and wit, and he really is so good at it. I also thought he walked the line between supporting the protestors at Ferguson and denouncing the violent shooting of the police officers very well.
But what about Jimmy’s mom-jeans?
first thing I noticed. pretty bad…
Hilarious!
They’re no beige booty shorts but they’re pretty snazzy. They look exactly like the ones Obama wore to go bowling, too funny.
Oops, comment ended up in the wrong spot, sorry.
Excellent comment. lol (the one directly above)
He’s really so smart and thoughtful and I love his dry humor. I just heard a StoryCorps interview where he talked to a young guy who’d gotten into a lot of trouble in his youth and Obama was amazing, really direct and frank but also funny and encouraging and supportive. He’s a really good guy.
Don’t agree with everything he does, especially foreign policy-wise. But he IS a cool person. Easy to talk to, can laugh at himself, interesting. LOTS of people are gonna make a stink about this but i think times are changing now and presidents/presidential candidates sort of need to do these “soft” appearances.
presidents are in need of stopping crimes against humanity, not shrugg them of with the “we tortured some folks” like Obama did.
there is nothing more dangerous than to let people in power that dont ahve any accountability appear cool. he needs to be roasted with hard hitting questions.
Obama has been leading a war on journalism and persecuted more whistleblowers than all of the presidents before him…COMBINED.
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/jurisprudence/2013/05/obama_s_justice_department_holder_s_leak_investigations_are_outrageous_and.html
the person who leaked the video of US Soliders shooting journalists for giggles is longer in jail than the soldiers who did the killing.
I completely agree with you but i’m saying if i separate him from the presidency, he IS a cool person that would be easy to hang out with.
Omg…I think he should stop doing these type of shows, that deosnt make him cool at all. And what we have from even if somebody consider his appearances cool. For God sake, why he have to be ask silly question about Kenye and reading those tweets. He is our president , not some bashing fame hungry celebrity and silly instigator.
is it possible for me to love obama more? why yes, yes it is. this makes me love him more!
+1
so you dont mind the torture and drones?
In a war against terrorists, nope. Don’t mind it.
you do know that there were never trials or dont you?
so no human rights for people deemed terrorists by the military industrial complex?
human rights either go for everbody or for nobody and it seems like you picked that last one. is that what you call freedom? to be killed without a trial, without evidence? to be tortured for months and then released because you were innocent and they couldnt find anything?
the racial profiling when you have a muslim sounding name? the spying on “allied” nations to get the upper hand in negotiations. (by the way about the climate change in which the USA have a huge part due to the massive pollution)
by fighting terrorism people like Obama have adopted their tactics. in a surveillance state there is no freedom.
Maria, I agree. This country putting a seal of approval on torture has no moral ground to stand on when criticizing human rights violations anywhere else. We should be more evolved than that. Especially since the torture has proven to be a failure and people not charged with crimes are held.
Drone development and usage has been around for 20+ years. Guantanamo was built by another admistration. War was declared without congressional approval by another sitting president and where we stand now in forgiven policy is not a direct effect of the present, it’s a continuation of past issues. I’m not starting a partisan argument, just pointing to time line.
Word, Maria! WORD! Preach it!
‘Ferguson have been (justifiably) protesting’
“Protesting”
Mark, there were plenty of peaceful protesters.
I’ve said it many times but I’ll say it again: I am so proud of our president. We are so lucky to have had such an intelligent, thoughtful and decent man in the White House for two terms. History will look very kindly upon him and he is going to go down as one of the greats, especially considering all of the obstacles he’s faced.
GObama!
Yes, he’s the best, one of the best presidents ever. And his family is adorable.
I agree with everything you’ve stated here.
GObama indeed!
Please allow us your Canadian neighbours to vote for him… Drat, not only we can’t, you can’t re-elect him either… I just love him, and my opinion of most/many US politicians is not fit to type. I have stopped following US politics closely but every time I do watch him he comes across so well, articulate, intelligent, emotionally astute and actually humble and funny. I know! He can move to Canada and be our next prime minister to replace the idiot we have been stuck with. Anyone else with me?
god yes, 1000 times yes to this.
Yup, both my hands are in the air with you on this. I cannot stand King Stephen and the sooner we show him the door, the better. Obama is far from perfect and I agree with the commenters who are mentioning that drone warfare, the Iraq occupation and torture are going to be marks on his legacy. However, the poise and patience that he has shown is exactly the kind of leadership every head of state should aspire to; the way that he is constantly undermined by the opposition is a national embarrassment.
Agreed! Captain Closet needs to be shown the door. Permanently!
I think I must be dyslexic, but at first I thought you said we couldn’t stand Stephen King. Hackles rising, I was all “hey, I know Stephen King isn’t good at twitter, but since when has that been an extraditable offense?!” /nonsensehyperbole. Ha ha.
Yes. So sick of the PM. SO sick of him.
I feel the same way about us here in Australia. I’d do anything to have Obama replace the moron who is currently running our country into the ground.
No matter the political affiliation, one cannot deny that the man is so darn likeable and charming. I hope we don’t get another Caucasian senior citizen with a 1950’s mentality in the White House in 2016.
You know who I’m really excited about as a possible candidate, even though he’s a Caucasian senior citizen? The irrepressible Bernie Sanders. If he runs, I’m moving to wherever his campaign headquarters are and I’m on his bandwagon like my cats on a dropped Dorito.
he may be a Caucasian senior citizen, but he sure as heck doesn’t have a 1950s mentality.
he’s a good guy, that Sanders.
Bernie wouldn’t have been popular in the 50s either. Like Bernie but he will never be elected president because he has too many, what some Americans believe, socialist beliefs. Our country sometimes, *sigh*.
Ooooooo Bernie would be awesome!!!
I loved his snark about a couple of those. “The ‘lol’ is redundant if you already said ‘haha.'” *snort*
This was cool of him (and I ALWAYS love the Mean Tweets section), but as a south american, my often pretty good relationship with Mr. Obama is currently going through a rough patch due to the conflict with Venezuela.
All I have to say is that this is completely inappropriate for a President to do. Sorry, he needs to be doing his job and taking it seriously, there’s a lot of bad bad things going on in our country and in the world right now. No matter how much we watch Kimmel or the Bachelor the Sh*t is happening. We can’t close our eyes to it. No time to take breaks.
What reopen the Benghazi case, get on top of that e-mail end of the world scandal, arm wrestle congress, meh….People should expect the same of congress yet, the hacks are on another vacation.
Every president since John F. Kennedy has appeared on talk shows or another “soft” interview vehicle. Basically, since television. So…they maybe disagree with you?
He’s taken the least days off compared to any president in recent history. Contain your nonsense.
“Contain your nonsense”… That’s going up there with, ” I cannot sanction your buffoonery” for me. And I agree, contain your nonsense.
hehe.
I have a particularly bad opinion about the US government as a whole, but I love love loooove Obama even though I don’t always agree with him. I’m from Mexico and to those who don’t like him I’ll gladly take him and you guys can keep our president! 😛
I am not a fan of his as a president — particularly foreign policy / international relations. He was not prepared for that aspect of the job and his missteps in that area are as marked as GWB’s, just in different ways.
But he’s a cool guy, great wit, and I’d love to hang out with him shooting pool at the bar for an afternoon.
And I love that he got caught on tape calling out Kanye for being an @$$.
agree 100 %.
It’s still kind of strange to say a head of state doing that, that would be impossible in my country/ with our head of state.
Is this the first time he’s done the mean tweets bit? If so then he’s copying New South Wales Premier Mike Baird who did it a couple of weeks ago. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-02-26/mike-baird-reads-mean-tweets/6267154
its a thing jimmy kimmel does with many guests on his show, and he has for a long time.
I see.
This isn’t unprecedented for a Peesident. George Bushtried his hand on Letterman (didn’t go well) and most notably Richard Nixon on Laugh In. ‘Sock it to ME?’ If they became president both McCain and Guiliani made multiple appearances on SNL. Not to mention the taped bits Bish did for the Correpondents dinner. The ‘looking for WMDs’ were really offensive I thought considering the fact the war was still active, people were dying and costs were mounting.