Obama goes on Letterman as media blitz continues

Barack Obama will become the first sitting US President to appear on The Late Show with David Letterman when he continues his current media blitz tonight. His trip to New York, where the Letterman show is taped at the Ed Sullivan Theatre, comes after Obama performed a "full celebrity Ginsburg" -  a Sunday morning publicity push, named after Monica Lewinsky's lawyer, which involved back-to-back interviews with five TV networks.
 
The interviews with CNN, CBS, NBC, ABC and the Spanish-language network Univision were recorded at the White House on Friday and were all broadcast within two hours on Sunday morning. Rupert Murdoch's Fox News - which is accused by Obama of being "entirely devoted to attacking my administration" - was not invited.
 
The topics covered were his controversial healthcare reform bill, the war in Afghanistan and the race debate ignited by former President Jimmy Carter last week when he suggested that Obama's critics were racist - a suggestion the President has been anxious to distance himself from.
 
The charm offensive has led Republican senator Lindsey Graham to comment that Obama is popping up on "everything except the Food Channel".
 
Doug Schoen, a Democratic pollster who served President Clinton, said the move was a high-stakes gamble that could backfire if his healthcare reform bill was not passed. "He is doubling down, betting the ranch and putting it all on the line on the basis that his communications skills are superior," he said.
 
The President's affable manner is his most potent political weapon and he cruised through an appearance on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno in March, when he became the first sitting President to appear on a late-night talk show.
 
An appearance on Letterman's couch should pose Obama few problems - Letterman is no Paxman.  On the other hand, upsetting the talk show host can be dangerous. In 2008 Republican presidential candidate John McCain shot himself in the foot by first cancelling a scheduled appearance on The Late Show and then changing his mind. When he did eventually make it to the couch he was embarrassingly forced to admit: "I screwed up". ·