Last night, President Obama appeared on Comedy Central’s Colbert Report, not only sitting down for an interview with the satirical conservative persona, but also taking over hosting duties for Colbert’s “The Word” commentary segment. Though his “Word” sound-off was primarily focused on his health care reform legislation, during their frequently fascinating Q&A, Colbert took the president to task on a variety of issues—of course, with his signature tongue-in-cheek faux outrage.
He asked zingers, for example: referencing Obama’s controversial executive action on immigration reform, “Why did you burn the Constitution and become an emperor?” Discussing the President’s hesitancy to support the Keystone XL pipeline—a move the audience made their views quite clear about—Colbert said “The American people want it. It’s going to create jobs. The State Department says it’s not going to raise the pollution in the atmosphere. You’re going to sign that, right?” Colbert even referred to the President as “Barackus Maximus” at one point. No matter what you think about his politics, it’s hard to deny that President Obama’s sense of humor—and his ability to be a good sport in the face of some criticism—made for some pretty entertaining television …
