President Obama got a lot of attention for his online video/pictures detailing what he does when no one is around. It's all a publicity stunt to get people signing up for Obamacare. And as such, it seems to be working; it's a blatant attention getter, but it is at just the right amount strangeness: not something you've seen before, but not something that will freak people out.
Lots of politicians do these odd sort of look-what-a-good-sport-I-am moments of entertainment. Here in Canada, they don't seem to have a problem smiling awkwardly through an ambush interview from This Hour Has 22 Minutes. But Obama's joking is a bit different, since it is not merely image crafting, but also advertising a government service.
This begs the question of whether it's really something an elected leader should do. I don't really have a problem with what Obama has done here - I doubt it would hurt anyone. (Though I'd love to see Fox News complain how unbecoming it is for the President.) But you have to wonder where this may go in the future. It's hard for politicians to get their message across, and it's a huge bonus if you can communicate directly to the public. Could it be that comedic ability will come to be an important political skill?
Yes, I know that politics has been largely theatre for a while now, but this could take it to a whole new level. The ideal politician would be someone who can talk about politics to the public in a way that the public finds entertaining. I wonder who that could be?
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