* Presidential candidates going on late-night, TV entertainment shows is nothing new. It harkens back to John F. Kennedy’s appearance with Jack Paar on the old “Tonight Show” in 1960. It was a savvy move to get in front of a demographic far removed from newspaper editorial pages and Sunday morning political talk shows.
It still is, if done right.
Bill Clinton playing the sax on Arsenio Hall in 1992 was cool. Then submitting to questions–including one about “shorts or briefs?”–wasn’t. You know it when you see it.
A few weeks back Hillary Clinton appeared on “Saturday Night Live” and arguably helped herself. It was a self-deprecating, three-minute cameo as “Val” the bartender chatting with cast member Kate McKinnon, who regularly plays Clinton. Net result: Clinton can deliver a punch line set-up, she can take a joke, and she can look likeable.
Last Saturday Donald Trump went on “SNL”–but as the host. Not such a good move–even for somebody for whom most political rules of thumb don’t apply. His best moment was the opening “monologue,” which included “heckler” Larry (Bernie Sanders) David and featured Trump between his two send-up impersonators, Taran Killam and Darrell Hammond.
But as a scripted host, he was a 90-minute player. He was in the sketches, none of which were memorable, unless lame and cringeworthy count. He also introduced and interacted with “Sia,” the semi-visaged singer who gives gimmick a bad name.
In short, Trump was in his over-the-top, look-at-me element.
As a pop-culture “entertainer” of sorts, he genuinely belonged on the set of something that was more self-indulgent and off-putting than funny. He wasn’t just showing that he could take a joke. He was reminding viewers why he is a political punch line.
As predicted, the ratings were good, which also meant a lot of people other than Republican primary hero worshippers were watching–and probably remembering how much they missed Adam Sandler.
Perhaps the picketer signs outside 30 Rock will be prophetic as well as pejorative: “Basta Trump.”
* Given his obvious vulnerabilities, it makes strategic sense for Ben Carson to go after the media.
First, defending himself against a self-labeled media inquisition has animated him. He no longer looks sedated, hardly a quality anyone would want in a would-be leader of the Free World.
Second, he turns the legitimate issue of all his informational deficits back on the media that has been calling him out about particulars of a West Point “scholarship” offer and memoir details about his pre-redemption days as an unhinged Detroit kid. It makes the press look petty.
“The American people are waking up to your game,” sanctimoniously reproached Carson.
Instead, the press should be calling him out over a myriad of issues that really matter–from ignorance of NATO membership and total unfamiliarity with “wet foot, dry foot” Cuban policy to his Affordable Care Act-slavery analogy and embarrassing confusion of the debt ceiling with the budget.
Didn’t we go through this eight years ago with Sarah Palin?
The point is this: Dr. Ben Carson, great back story notwithstanding, is not some hatchet-job victim of PolitiFact. He is simply unprepared to be president when it comes to what matters most.
Carson the candidate needs serious media vetting–not scrutiny that parses West Point nuances over “scholarship” and “appointment.”