How Jay Leno helps Obama

The consequences of being the first sitting president to appear on 'The Tonight Show'

President Obama has a lot to gain with his Thursday appearance on The Tonight Show With Jay Leno, said the Los Angeles Times in an editorial. It's a chance for Obama to bypass the Washington press corps by taking his economic message "straight to Leno's 5 million viewers," and show he's a regular guy.

In case Obama hasn't noticed, said Mary Kate Cary, who wrote speeches for president George H. W. Bush, in U.S. News & World Report, he's not a regular guy anymore. He's leader of the free world. "Doing Jay Leno lessens the stature of the office, and diminishes the man."

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