Letterman gets to the heart of it all

By David Usborne
Tuesday, 22 September 2009
On jetting into New York last night ahead of this morning's climate change talks, Barack Obama did the important stuff first: appearing on the late night television show hosted by David Letterman. There he was able to ponder such things as heart-shaped potatoes and the role played by race in recent attacks on his healthcare plan.
"First of all, I think it's important to realise that I was actually black before the election," Mr Obama quipped when prodded again on the race question. Not to be outdone, Mr Letterman responded: "How long have you been a black man?"
The appearance on the Late Show did have a serious purpose of course – Mr Obama is still trying to boost popular support for his healthcare overhaul – now at a critical stage of negotiation in the US Congress. But he mostly kept things light-hearted. Before he came on the set, Mr Letterman rehearsed 10 reasons why Mr Obama would have agreed to come on the show. Among them: because he said yes without thinking about it, rather like George Bush did when he invaded Iraq.
But Mr Obama had overheard from offstage an exchange between Letterman and a woman in the audience who had come with a heart-shaped potato. "The main reason I'm here?" Mr Obama began. "I want to see the heart-shaped potato." The woman tossed it to him and told him he could keep it. When Mr Obama sees that I "heart" NY logo in future he will immediately think spud.