Last Thursday, our new media President Barack Obama appeared on “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.”

For those of us who are enamored with presidential trivia, it was another presidential first. Apparently, no sitting president has ever appeared on a late night talk show. It was a trivia moment of which I was totally unaware.  

However, I guess my awareness is clouded by my impression that presidents, their administrations, policies and behavior has been rich fodder for late night talk show hosts for so many years, it’s as if sitting presidents have always been on late night TV.

I have not a clue as to why, but I watched this presidential first with great anticipation. Goodness knows I’m not enamored with President Obama’s double standards, economic initiative, or national security policies.

However, I continue find him compelling and personally likable.

Perhaps I watched with expectation because the unscripted, ad-lib moments of a major political figure are mother’s milk for a columnist.

I was amused with the conservative chattering class getting all worked-up in a lather as to whether or not
going on the show diminished the prestige of the president.

Good grief. Get over it.

I rather like having a real live human being for a president.

Take a memo: If constant personal attacks on the president - as in “Bush Derangement Syndrome” - did not serve our nation well in the last eight years, replacing it with “Obama Derangement Syndrome” will not work either.

Cable TV shows that began predicting the failure of the Obama presidency — before the man even took office — just look silly.

I would suggest that they have lost credibility with me, but that would imply that I once considered them credible … not.

Then there is the matter of the media flipping out over the president’s unfortunate quip - almost off-microphone - about Special Olympians.

While talking about bowling on the White House bowling alley, installed by President Harry Truman in 1947, the president, who is well accepted as a gifted athlete himself, quipped that he’d bowled a 129. And in a self-deprecating moment, added, “That was like the Special Olympics or something.”

I thought it was a pretty dumb thing to say. However, I put it into context and got over it quickly.

To his credit, the president recognized the gaffe after the show and took personal responsibility. On Air Force One, on his way home to Washington, before the taped show had even aired, he called Tim Shriver, chairman of the Special Olympics, and apologized.

If you recall, Tim Shriver is the son of Westminster’s own Sargent Shriver and Eunice Kennedy Shriver, who founded the global Special Olympics in 1968. It now serves around 200 million folks with intellectual and physical disabilities.

I agree with Tim Shriver’s assessment, “I think it’s important to see that words hurt and words do matter. And these words that, in some respect, can be seen as humiliating or a put down to people with special needs do cause pain, and they do result in stereotypes.”

Shriver later said on “Good Morning America” that the president, “expressed his disappointment and he apologized in a way that was very moving. He expressed that he did not intend to humiliate this population …”

If Shriver can accept the president’s apology, then so can I.

Of course, I’m overlooking the double standard that if President George W. Bush had said it, the left-leaning media would have a meltdown.

I can participate in petty politics on parade with the best. However, I have worked with Special Olympians all my life and my insensitivity-radar is well tuned; yet I remain not offended at his remark.

Furthermore, I have grown exhausted with folks who play the politics of outrage at the drop of a hat over otherwise meaningless, albeit unfortunate remarks.

Last time I checked, our economy is still a train wreck and there are still folks out there who wish to do us harm. Let’s get back to the main plot of the saga of this era and stop with the food fights of junior high school proportions.

That’s my two-cents. What’s yours?

I’ll look forward to your comments in the readers’ comment section below.

Kevin Dayhoff writes from Westminster. E-mail him at kevindayhoff@gmail.com.

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