Politicians Climb the Greasy Pole on Pop TV

Somewhere in between the parade of busty women in low-cut gold lamé minidresses and contestants spinning the wheel, George Bush made a star turn.

“I’m thrilled to be on ‘Deal or No Deal’ with you tonight,” Bush said from a giant screen in a cameo taped for the Monday episode of one of NBC’s most popular prime-time shows.

The president paused a beat. “Come to think of it, I’m thrilled to be anywhere with high ratings these days.”

Elitism is to the 2008 campaign as communism was to 1950s politics: a career breaker. And pop TV is the antidote, a free platform to rub shoulders with viewers who only glancingly pay attention to the news.

Making nice on a cooking program or game show is the macropopulist equivalent of knocking down pins in a bowling alley in Altoona, Pa., or belting down Crown Royal whiskey in a bar in Crown Point, Ind., only better.

The setting, be it Rachael Ray’s kitchen or Howie Mandel’s array of suitcases on “Deal or No Deal,” is as familiar as home to millions of viewers.

None of the presidential candidates want to be seen as snooty or overeducated, which must be why on Monday all three provided taped greetings to wrestling fans watching “WWE Raw” on the USA network.

Even a president can do a stint on a lowbrow entertainment show as long as it is cloaked in a dignified cause. The “Deal or No Deal” contestant Mr. Bush rooted for, Joe Kobes, is a decorated Army captain who served three tours in Iraq.

Timing, however, matters. While it may be the first time a sitting president found it fitting to make fun of himself on a game show, that showstopper came at a moment when the Bush presidency is in eclipse.

The first lady, Laura Bush, is scheduled to serve as an NBC co-host on “Today” on Tuesday, but she was outflanked by her would-be Republican successor, Cindy McCain, who on Monday was a guest co-host of “The View” on ABC and shared some secrets about her husband.

(Mrs. McCain said that the man she calls “Johnny-Boy” loves horticulture and cooking and contrary to news reports does not have a “temper” problem.)

Michelle Obama, who last week stood up for her husband’s common touch on “The Colbert Report,” tried to prove it by taping a segment of “Rachael Ray” alongside Barack Obama on Monday. The episode is expected to run in May.

Hillary Rodham Clinton performed a self-mocking skit on “The Colbert Report” last week (not to be confused with her self-mocking skit on “Saturday Night Live,” on March 1) and agreed to appear on “Larry King Live” on CNN on Monday night.

Obama accepted a seat, for the third time, on “The Daily Show With Jon Stewart.”

The novelty of politicians showing their lighter side on national television has begun to weigh heavily on the campaign season.

The surprise lies not in who does which show, but who doesn’t do them at all, and at this point only the pope has held out.

It’s hard to recall how unusual it was to see Gov. Bill Clinton of Arkansas playing the sax on “The Arsenio Hall Show” in 1992 or Mr. Bush revealing his favorite sandwich (peanut butter and jelly on white bread) on “Oprah” during the 2000 campaign.

Some candidates, however, are bigger hams than others. Mr. McCain had a walk-on part on the Fox drama “24” in 2006, and played himself as a wedding guest in the 2005 film comedy “Wedding Crashers.”

In politics as in show business too many appearances can weaken their value: all three presidential candidates taped appeals for donations for a special star-studded episode of “American Idol” this month and all three were bumped by bigger stars (Reese Witherspoon, Miley Cyrus) and relegated to the next night.

The law of diminishing returns works the other way as well. Satirical programs like “The Daily Show” send up politicians, but they increasingly invite politicians to send themselves up on their dime.

Too much collusion blunts the satire and turns even the most irreverent, iconoclastic television personalities into insiders.

This campaign year, more than any other, highlights the pecking order of television appearances — the higher the politicians’ stature or rank, the less they have to clown; the farther behind they are in the polls, the harder they have to sing for their supper.

Last week Mrs. Clinton, Mr. Obama and Senator John Edwards all appeared on the same episode of “The Colbert Report.” Mr. Edwards, who dropped out of the Democratic race in January, delivered a lengthy monologue mocking himself as a standard-bearer for the white male voter.

Mrs. Clinton was assigned a less embarrassing task: she pretended to be the only person in the studio who could fix a broken television screen. “Try toggling the input,” she instructed an unseen engineer.

Mr. Obama, who is ahead of her in the delegate count, didn’t have to mug; he only had to appear live by satellite from a campaign stop, and actually managed to work parts of his stump speech into the cameo.

Less is more, and more clout means less time on the air. True power is being able to turn down Ellen DeGeneres or Jon Stewart.

But in the perennial campaign no politician is strong enough to just say no — not even Nancy Reagan who in 1983 couldn’t say no to “Diff’rent Strokes.”

tags: politicians  pop culture  elitism  snobbery  tv  

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