Clinton Dodges ‘Sniper Fire’ to Appear on Leno

By Anastacia Mott Austin

You won’t see Barack Obama on SNL or The Tonight Show. Maybe he should appear though, since Hillary Clinton seems to be having all the fun.

Say what you want about Clinton, and people do, but the woman has the ability to laugh at herself.

Appearing about a month ago on "Saturday Night Live," Clinton played along as comedian Amy Poehler mocked the New York senator, ending her impersonation with a braying laugh. Chuckling, Clinton asked, "Do I really laugh like that?

And this week, Clinton showed up for more laughs by appearing on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno.

Arriving in the studio to the tune of "Rocky," since she is now playing on her supposed underdog status, Clinton announced to Leno, "I was worried I wasn’t going to make it," adding, "I was pinned down by sniper fire at the Burbank Airport."

Now why can’t Obama do that? I guess jokes about a racist preacher wouldn’t be quite as funny.

Though Clinton did manage to get in the usual sound bytes about health care, the Florida and Michigan delegate seating, education, the economy and how she saw the recession coming, she and Leno continued to banter back and forth, both poking fun at her.

They performed a short skit at the beginning of the show, mocking the "3:00 in the morning" ads Clinton has run. The red phone rang, and Clinton answered it to hear Leno pleading with her to come on his show. She turned to the camera and said, "We’ve got to get caller I.D."

They kept up the phone gag when Clinton said, "It happens every single night, somebody calls up and they've got something to say." Clinton then turned to Leno and said, "You've got to stop calling."

The appreciative audience roared as the jokes continued. Leno remarked that Clinton’s daughter Chelsea had told reporters her mother would make a better President than her father, former President Bill Clinton. Hillary quipped, "Oh, she’s such a smart young woman."

She also allowed a little fun at the expensive of the former President. When Leno told her that Bill Clinton had "lost his cool" at various points during Hillary’s campaign, she responded, "I told him, OK, honey, that's alright—we don't have to go get excited about it. He's doing a great job for me, but he does get a little carried away sometimes."

Clinton admits to having made errors during her campaign. One thing she seems to have mastered, however, is the recovery and the comeback. There’s no better way to come back in America than to laugh at oneself, and if you can do it on television, all the better.

Obama’s speech on race in response to the Jeremiah Wright comments was a masterful, brilliant political moment. It will be remembered as one of the great moments of his campaign.

But what he could learn from Clinton is how to engage the public with humor. She has admitted her mistakes by allowing herself to be laughed at by millions of people.

You can’t buy better publicity than that.