Here's a press release that CBS has sent out…
Sen. Barack Obama to visit David Letterman on Wednesday
How funny can Barack Obama be?
You can find out when the Democratic presidential candidate visits "Late Show With David Letterman" on Wednesday.
It will be Obama's fifth visit to the show. Another guest will be LeBron James of the Cleveland Cavaliers and the U.S. Olympics men's basketball team, which won a gold medal in Beijing.
Here's my answer to the question posed: I don't care how funny Barack Obama is. I don't care how funny any person on my ballot is and I think voters are chowderheads if they allow that to matter in their selections.
If the guy's funny, great. That might be because he's disarmingly honest and unpretentious, which sometimes helps a leader be funny. But if so, it's the honest part that's a plus, not the funny part.
I want a president who'll know how to deal with the situations in Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan and other places where U.S. lives and interests are in deep, deep trouble. I want a president who'll work for a fairer distribution of the tax burden, who'll curb needless spending and bring down the deficit, who'll do something about the inefficiency and prohibitive expense of health care in this country, who'll approach environmental issues without the fear of costing some corporation a smidgen of profit, and who'll defend the Constitution and the Rule of Law and basic human rights for all.
If he or she can do some or all of that, I don't care if they're less funny than The McLean Stevenson Show. (That was the first TV show I worked on and it was not very funny.)
Conversely, if we want a president who'll be funny, let's elect Gilbert Gottfried or Lewis Black or one of those guys. Stephen Colbert tried to get into the race but they wouldn't let him.
Please…let's elect a president because he or she is smart and competent, not because they're funny or "he seems like one of us" or they look like they'd be fun to have a beer with. Giving someone points for being funny is like picking the surgeon who's going to perform your heart bypass because he's cute. It's really, really stupid.