Barack Obama flexed his comedy chops over the weekend, making a surprise appearance to open Saturday Night Live. The show was hosted by NBC anchor Brian Williams.
Said Barack to Amy Poehler's Clinton as he removed his “Obama” mask: “Well Hillary, I have nothing to hide. I enjoy being myself. I'm not going to change who I am just because it's Halloween.” The appearance came after last week's Democratic debate, which was widely seen as a “pile-on” attack of frontrunner Clinton by the other candidates.
On Friday's Today show, Matt Lauer asked Obama how he feels about Hillary Clinton playing the “gender card,” which some suggest she did following last week's debate.
Said Obama: “I am assuming and I hope that Senator Clinton wants to be treated like everybody else and I think that's why she's running for President. When we had the debate back in Iowa a while back we spent, I think, the first 15 minutes of the debate hitting me on various foreign policy issues. I didn't come out and say, ‘look, I'm being hit on because I look different from the rest of the folks on the stage'. I assumed it was because there were real policy differences there. I think that has to be the attitude that all of us have to take. I don't think that people doubt that Senator Clinton is tough. She's used to playing in national politics. And in fact that is one of the things that she has suggested is why she should be elected, is because she's been playing in this rough and tumble stage. It doesn't make sense for her after having run that way for eight months, the first time that people start challenging her point of view that suddenly she backs off and says don't pick on me. I think that that is obviously not how we would expect her to operate if she were president.”
I haven't had a chance to finish it, but Andrew Sullivan argues for Obama in a cover story in the new Atlantic. The presidential hopeful also showed off some dance moves on Ellen late last week, which provided plenty of fodder for The Soup over the weekend.