Obama shares presidential details with 'Tonight Show' viewers

By Peter Nicholas

Chicago Tribune

(MCT)

LOS ANGELES _ Barack Obama bantered casually with Jay Leno during a taping of the "Tonight Show," expressing occasional frustration with life inside the presidential bubble, laying out his position on the bonuses paid to AIG employees, and giving his pick for the NCAA basketball tournament.

Obama appeared on the show to reach a different kind of audience than he normally commands, according to the White House. He mixed serious policy discussion with tantalizing details about his life as the leader of the free world.

Wearing a dark suit, legs crossed comfortably, Obama said he is getting a level of security that is often tough to fathom.

When he arrived at the Orange County Fairgrounds on Wednesday, he said he wanted to walk to the site of his town hall appearance. Secret Service told him no.

"They said, 'It's 750 yards,'" the president recalled. Obama replied that it would be only a five-minute walk. "Yes, sir. Sorry," he said he was told.

"Now, they let me walk on the way back, but the doctor is behind me with a defibrillator." Obama said.

"Michelle jokes about how in the motorcade we have the ambulance and the caboose and the dog sled. ... The submarine. A whole bunch of stuff going on."

Obama said he has picked the University of North Carolina to win the NCAA men's basketball tournament. An avid basketball fan and recreational player, the president said he plans to have rolling basketball hoops wheeled into the White House tennis courts so that he and friends can play.

Leno asked if his friends occasionally let him win. The president mugged for the camera.

"I don't see why they would throw the game except for all those Secret Service guys with guns around them."

More seriously, he said; "I don't think I get the hard fouls that I used to."

Still, Obama said he hasn't given up on bowling, and has made use of the White House lane. He has notched a score of 129.

"I've been practicing," he said.

A constant source of speculation has been the breed of dog the Obama family will choose. But Obama quipped that his promise to get a dog might have been an empty one: "Listen, this is Washington. That was a campaign promise."

He smiled broadly and said that the family will get the dog after he returns from a trip to Europe early next month.

Leno asked what kind it would be. A "Portuguese Waterhead?"

Obama: "It's not that. It's not a 'Waterhead.' Sounds like a scary dog _ dripping around the house."

Leno pressed him on the bonuses going to AIG executives. The talk show host said the government shouldn't worry about the prospect that disgruntled AIG employees might sue if the bonuses weren't paid.

The U.S. could simply say, "We're broke; sue us," Leno said.

Obama said the public's anger over the bonuses was understandable. But he was non-committal about a bill moving through Congress that would tax the bonuses at 90 percent.

"We're going to do everything we can to see if we can get the bonuses back," the president said. "The most important thing is to put in ... financial regulatory mechanisms to prevent companies like AIG holding the rest of us hostage."

___

© 2009, Chicago Tribune.

Visit the Chicago Tribune on the Internet at http://www.chicagotribune.com/

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.