Skip to footer

Dominoes? Obama and Letterman talk about life after the limelight

President Obama joked with David Letterman during his eighth "Late Show" appearance Monday, talking about retirement, Baltimore police, and  "Top 10 Questions Dumb Guys Ask the President."

  • By Nedra Pickler Associated Press

| New York

President Barack Obama is envisioning a future of playing dominoes with retiree David Letterman.

Obama joked about their quieter futures during his eighth "Late Show" appearance Monday, saying Americans have grown up with the 33-year veteran comedian.

"After a tough day at the office or coming home from work, knowing that you've been there to give us a little bit of joy and a little bit of laughter, it has meant so much," Obama said. "You're part of all of us. You've given us a great gift and we love you."

Letterman is filling his CBS show with prominent guests in the lead-up to his final show May 20.

In honor of Obama's appearance, Letterman listed "Top 10 Questions Dumb Guys Ask the President," which included "Will you be a guest on one of my last shows?" and "Will you show us your birth certificate?" Number 1, in honor of the recent unauthorized landing on the Capitol lawn: "When will you return my gyrocopter?"

Letterman returned Obama's praise by complimenting his "very funny" performance at the White House Correspondents Dinner last month. "I'm a pretty funny guy," Obama responded.

"You have guys writing that stuff?" Letterman asked, to which Obama threw up his hands and gave a sidelong look at the audience like he couldn't believe Letterman would ask. "No," Obama deadpanned. "I came up with it all myself."

As The Christian Science Monitor reported, here are a few of the zingers from the White House Correspondents Dinner:

• I’m feeling sorry – believe it or not – for the speaker of the House…. These days, the House Republicans actually give John Boehner a harder time than they give me, which means orange really is the new black.  

• Gridlock has gotten so bad in this town you have to wonder: What did we do to [insert scatological term] Chris Christie so bad?  

• Michelle and I watched the Olympics – we cannot believe what these folks do – death-defying feats – haven’t seen somebody pull a “180” that fast since Rand Paul disinvited that Nevada rancher from this dinner.

The two men also discussed the serious topic of the Baltimore riots, with the president discussing how too many minority communities don't have a trusting relationship with police.

Letterman asked if racism is a factor. Obama said it was a residual one after a history of slavery, Jim Crow laws and discrimination, while adding society has made great strides. "I'm a testament to that," he said to applause from the studio audience.

Letterman said Obama told him during a commercial break that he plans to take a month off after leaving office. The president said he and the first lady hope to get involved in causes they care about "in a different capacity," including climate change, as well as helping support disadvantaged youth and military families.

But most of all Obama indicated that, like Letterman, he is looking forward to life out of the spotlight. "It does feel good not to have to be on the stump," Obama said of the 2016 campaign.

"I was thinking you and me could play some dominoes together," Obama said. "We could go to the local Starbucks and swap stories."

___

Follow Nedra Pickler on Twitter at https://twitter.com/nedrapickler

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to Dominoes? Obama and Letterman talk about life after the limelight
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/2015/0505/Dominoes-Obama-and-Letterman-talk-about-life-after-the-limelight
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe