ladies love cool Barack
Obama pals around with the gals on The View
Senator Barack Obama, center, posing with the cast of "The View" during a tapingin New York in March 2008. From left: Whoopi Goldberg, Barbara Walters, Obama,Joy Behar, Sherri Shepherd and Elisabeth Hasselbeck.Photo by Steve Fenn/ABC
Latest promotion of the president's appearance on the show
Who's ready for some girl talk?
Apparently President Barack Obama is. Reaching out to soccer moms nation-wide, the Commander-in-Chief is filming an episode as a guest on The View today that will be aired on Thursday.
Although this is not Obama's daytime talk TV debut (he made View appearances while on the campaign trail and also hit the Tyra Banks Show), it is the first time a standing president has ever done daytime talk TV.
While the banter between Barbara Walters (who is making a special one-time return appearance for this show — she wasn't supposed to be back on until September), Whoopi Goldberg, Joy Behar, Elisabeth Hasselbeck and Sherri Shepherd may lean towards pop, the show has also drawn attention as doing a superior job than some traditional media when it comes to the game of politics. In 2008, Hasselbeck hassled the presidential candidate about the Jeremiah Wright scandal, and when Sen. John McCain served as a guest, Behar probed about lies in campaign advertisements.
We can expect the opinionated ladies to throw a few curveballs towards Obama, especially in the aftermath of the forced resignation of Shirley Sherrod from the Department of Agriculture after a selectively edited Internet video clip implied that she had shown racial bias against a white farmer. Sherrod — who has been offered a new job in the Agriculture department, but has not yet accepted — appeared on The View last week.
Obama may be able to smooth over the scandal after a few expected slaps on the wrist from Barbara, who in the past has told him that he is "sexy."
Beyond any Sherrod drama, the president is furthering his campaign to appear as a regular guy — he's also appeared on Jay Leno, Letterman and ESPN. But Obama only happens to be in New York and available for The View because of two fundraisers.
