I don't care what anybody says, Obama's "Between Two Ferns" appearance was great.

 

This week, President Barack Obama sat down with Zach Galifianakis on the comedian’s offbeat faux-talk show “Between Two Ferns”. His purpose was to plug the Affordable Care Act. Specifically to debunk the notion that healthcare.gov is still malfunctioning, and to encourage jaded young Americans (aka Galifianakis’s fan base) to sign up for coverage before the March 31^st deadline. As an Obama supporter who is not blind to his shortcomings, I thought it was excellent. I thought that agreeing to appear on the show was a savvy choice, and that the idea was well executed and entertaining.

                Still, it was a bold move. And all bold moves have a backlash. The bobbleheads at Fox News were predictably apoplectic, and many others criticized the president for either diminishing the dignity of the office, or simply falling flat. I will now summarize every dissenting argument that I have come across and dispute them one by one: 

1)      With all the shit going on overseas right now, why does Obama have time to appear on a fake talk show?

Shit is never not going on overseas. There is always going to be a crisis abroad. And while the current crisis in Ukraine is severe, it is not Obama’s fight. As much as the right frets about other countries thinking our president is a pansy, it doesn’t make sense for him to neglect his domestic responsibilities in order to go head to head with Putin full-time. Getting people to use healthcare.gov is one of his most important domestic responsibilities.

2)      It is trivializing to discuss health care on a comedy show.

It lightens, but does not trivialize. There is nothing wrong with lightening the issue of insurance, so long as it gets people to sign up. Insurance (like taxes) is important, but boring. A little humor helps to draw people in. And levity gets results, just ask the marketing department at any major home or auto insurance company, who are all in competition for who can have the wackiest ad campaign.

3)      Obama is embarrassing himself by trying to appeal to hipster Millennials.

I prefer to think of it as not giving up on them. Hipster Millennials are a strange bunch. They obsess over of-the-moment memes, while neglecting the news. They spend hundreds of dollars a week on liquor and lattes, but dismiss basic health coverage as a needless expense. By infiltrating their snarky websites and mimicking their sardonic humor, Obama is saying “Hey, weirdos. I understand you better than you think I do. Believe me when I say you need health insurance.”

Conservative pundits (most of whom misinterpret the tenor of Galifianakis’s humor) are trying to paint this as a desperate bid for the approval of an age bracket that he will never understand. If they’re so skeptical of Obama’s ability to appeal to youths, perhaps they should consult Mitt Romney. Too soon? OK fine - perhaps they should consult John McCain.

4)      It would have been more appropriate for another member of Obama’s team to do this.

Sure, Joe Biden could have done it. Or Jay Carney. Or Kathleen Sebelius. But the result would have flatlined, and likely been the end of “Between Two Ferns.” Without the novelty of the Commander in Chief himself riffing with Zach Galifianakis, then the whole segment really does become a lame, out-of-touch plug for healthcare.gov.

5)      This offends the dignity of the office.

Oh please. It’s not like he made a sex tape. He appeared on a comedy show, threw some mild shade at the Hangover franchise, and then delivered a straightforward pitch for healthcare.gov. Comedy and politics have been awkwardly linked for a very long time. Just look at Nixon’s Laugh-In appearance (the liberal counterexample of choice this week) or the cheery rapport between politicians and the people who impersonate them on SNL. And if it was undignified for Obama to school Galifianakis in a scripted skit, I suppose that Rick Santorum was just doing God’s work when he allowed himself to be openly mocked by Stephen Colbert on his comedy show. Politics is about winning people over, and a great way to do that is by making them laugh, and demonstrating your ability to laugh at yourself.

But if you really want to argue that there is a rigid, eternal standard for what POTUS can and cannot do, keep in mind that some of the earliest presidents owned slaves. Acceptable presidential behavior changes with the times. And it’s changing in the right direction.

6)      There’s nothing wrong with what Obama did, he just did it badly.

I guess this is a matter of opinion, but I definitely disagree. The tone of “Between Two Ferns” is tricky. It is reminiscent of Sacha Baron Cohen’s former project “Da Ali G Show.” But while Cohen made unsuspecting fools of his interviewees, Galifianakis invites them in on the joke. Guests are meant to mimic his awkward, prickly defensiveness. Some can pull it off better than others. I think the president – with the additional challenge of balancing satire and sincerity - was pitch perfect.

7)      Lincoln would not have done it.

-          Oh, Bill O’Reilly. An absurd, unprovable speculation is probably the closest we’ll ever get to a “no comment” from you. So…we’ll take it.