In the much anticipated appearance of Barack Obama on NBC's Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, the President got to slow jam his Democrat talking points while bashing Republicans.
Not surprisingly, Fallon and his band were more than happy to comply with their guest's efforts to push his agenda while trashing those on the other side of the aisle (video follows with transcript and commentary):
JIMMY FALLON, HOST: You might have seen this in the news, but President Obama has asked Congress to stop the interest rates on Stafford student loans from going up this summer.
[Cheers and applause]
FALLON: Yeah. I was going to make a joke about this news, but I don't think it needs a joke. You know what I'm talking about Tariq?
TARIQ TROTTER, SINGER ROOTS BAND: Yeah, Jimmy, I think you're saying you want to slow jam this news?
FALLON: That’s right. I want to slow jam the news, and I'm not the only one.
How nice. So the folks at NBC decided to immediately advocate a position on this student loan issue and assist the President in advancing his agenda in an election year on national television:
FALLON: Hit me presidential style.
OBAMA: On July 1st of this year, the interest rates on Stafford student loans, the same loans that many of you used to help pay for college, are set to double. That means some hardworking students will be paying about $1,000 extra just to get their education. So I've called on Congress to prevent this from happening. What we’ve said is simple: now is not the time to make school more expensive for our young people.
[Cheers and applause]
So far so good. Now watch Fallon take this much further:
FALLON: Oh, yeah! You should listen to the President, or as I like to call him, the Preezy of the United Steezy. Things are heating up inside Congress's chambers, behind all those closed doors. So the President made a few discrete calls across the aisle. He said, “Hey, let's get together on this one. Without an affordable Stafford loan, where can a student turn? The Pell grant is a beautiful thing, but with college getting more expensive, is it enough to satisfy your collegiate needs?” Ah Pell no.
TROTTER: Ah Pell no. If Congress doesn’t act it’s the students who pay, the Right and Left should join on this like Kim and Kanye.
[Applause]
OBAMA: Now, there's some in Congress who disagree. They say keeping the interest rate low isn't the way to help our students. They say we should be doing everything we can to pay down the national debt - well, so long as it doesn't include taxing billionaires. But their position is that students just have to make this rate increase work. Frankly, I don't buy it.
As you can see, this was no longer just a funny sketch on a late night program. This was the President pushing his agenda during an election year, and the folks at NBC only too happy to help.
Of course, the was certainly not the first time Fallon and his band pushed a liberal agenda while trashing Republicans. Last November, Congresswoman Michele Bachmann was greeted with the song "Lyin A-- B---h." But I digress:
FALLON: Mmmm, mmmm, mmmm. The Barack Ness monster ain't buying it. We all know our legislative bodies in the House tossing and turning late into the night, but still Republicans disagree, and can even filibuster, but if they do, the President says they're going to feel it, buster.
TROTTER: The GOP is steady saying, “No, no, no,” They should find something new to do like Tim Tebow.
[Applause]
Nice. So Fallon and his crew not only were all in with the President, they also took a cheap shot at Tebow.
For his part, Obama approved this script meaning that he too was fine with trashing the Jets quarterback for no other reason than his religious faith - on national television:
OBAMA: The reason it’s so important to keep down costs is so we keep college affordable.
FALLON: And the President knows his stuff, y'all. That's why they call him POTUS, which means person on top -- what is it?
OBAMA: Jimmy, POTUS stands for President of the United States.
TROTTER: He's the POTUS with the Mostest.
OBAMA: Let’s keep the rates down on college loans.
FALLON: Stop. The loan you save may be your own.
TROTTER: Yeah, let's get it together and make our lives better, cause a college degree is more [unintelligible.] If college costs rise we’ll have financial blues.
FALLON: And that is how we slow jam the news.
OBAMA: Oh, yeah.
[Applause]
Actually, that's how a late night comedy program completely throws its support behind an incumbent president and his policies in an election year.
This was despite Fallon saying at the end of his interview with Obama about a half hour later, "We don't take sides politically on this show."
Really What was that how slow jam to Democrat talking points thing earlier in the program? I guess he somehow missed that.
More importantly, as it's only April, can you imagine what the Obama-loving media will do in the coming months?
He really doesn't need to raise any money - he's going to get all the free promotion like this he needs without spending a dime.
Must be nice.
