Jay Leno Jokes about President Obama

Is it a leading political indicator? Or is NewsBusters grasping at straws?

NewsBusters reports that when Jay Leno recently told a joke that disparaged President Obama, the audience laughed.

The joke, via transcript:

JAY LENO: Hey, over the weekend, President Obama, you know that, President Obama played golf with Tiger Woods. And Tiger said the president was a very good golfer for a guy who only plays five days a week. You know, so, that's pretty good. [Laughter]

Actually, you know what the president's handicap is? Anybody know? Doesn't understand economics. That's the handicap. But other than that, other than that, he's fine. [Cheers, whistles, applause]

Breathlessly, NewsBusters interpreted:

It certainly says something when a studio audience in liberal Los Angeles applauds a joke about Obama not understanding economics.

But, what makes anyone think that Jay Leno’s audience is composed of Angelinos? For all you or I know, the audience is filled with tourists from Kansas and Alabama.

It is more likely that the audience contains more than its fair share of Republicans. Surely, the Leno audience is not a representative sampling of the American electorate. Besides, Leno has always made jokes at the expense of Obama.

One excuses those who console themselves with the thought that the nation has outgrown its infatuation with Obama, but the president’s approval ratings are still strong. Even the recent increase in FICA taxes has not dented them.

I only have one quibble with the joke. Obama’s handicap is not that he doesn’t know anything about economics. His real handicap is: he doesn’t know that he doesn’t know anything about economics.

By the time the American people wake up to that realization it will probably be too late to do very much more than to let things play themselves out.