President Barack Obama became the first sitting commander in chief to appear on a daytime talk show this morning when he sat down with the ladies of The View.
And here we thought he was against torture.
First up, the question on everyone's mind: how pissed is Oprah Winfrey why them?
"Look, I was trying to find a show that Michelle actually watched and so I thought this is it, right here," Obama said. "All those news shows, she's like, eh, let me get the clicker."
Since Barbara Walters—who cut short her open-heart surgery recovery time to be present for the historic interview—wasn't going to let him off that easy, Obama was also asked to run through the highs and lows of the past few months. Or, in Obama-speak, the roses and the thorns.
The rose: spending a few days in Maine with Michelle, Sasha and Malia. "They're not quite teenagers yet, so they still like you," he said of his daughters.
The thorn: "Well, where do I begin here?" he asked.
The loss of 750,000 jobs per month at the start of his term, the shrinking economy, the stabilization of the financial system, dropping home prices, the oil spill, two wars and a little thing called swine flu H1N1 all got a mention from the prez. But as tough as his gig has been, he's not asking for sympathy. He does, however, have a fair share of it for the long-embattled American public.
"What's been satisfying is seeing how resilient the American people are. As much as you said it's been tough for me, the truth is it's not tough for me, you know I've got people, pundits on the news, who may say things about me.
"Of course, you think about what the American people have gone through…those are the folks who I draw inspiration from because I get letters every night from them and I read them and as tough as its been, they remain hopeful, they remain optimistic about America and so I don't spend a lot of time worrying about me, I spend a lot of time worrying about them."
But the interview wasn't all about platform pontificating. It was also about pop culture.
In between waxing political on the hard-hitting issues of the day, Obama was also asked for his take on some of the scandals that have gone down outside the Beltway.
First of all, Obama isn't so out of the gossip cycle that he is unaware of the situation known as Lindsay Lohan.
"I actually know that, yes," he said when asked if he was aware Code Red was currently baking in a jail cell. "I don't know [how]. It's in the ether."
What he doesn't know is who, exactly, this Snooki person is.
When asked by Joy Behar if the Jersey Shore star should run for the Mayor of Wasilla, Obama laughed, then 'fessed up.
"I've got to admit, I don't know who Snooki is."
He does, however, know who Sidney Poitier is, and dubbed the acting legend "smooth."
But there was one celeb scandal that had the president positively tongue-tied. When asked if Mel Gibson needed to take anger-management classes, some first-class dodging was in order.
"I, I, I…let me answer the Afghanistan question," he joked, before adding, "I haven't seen a Mel Gibson movie in a while."
And while only time will tell whether Obama managed to nab that housewife swing vote he was no doubt seeking with his guest spot today, he can almost certainly say goodbye to the Bielebers.
While Obama copped to having Jay-Z, Frank Sinatra and Maria Callas on his iPod, he made no bones about his distinct lack of Bieber fever. And he thought the H1N1 pandemic was bad.
"I do not have Justin Bieber on there," he told Sherri Shepherd, but smoothed it over by saying he had met the teen dream and thought he was a very nice young man.
As for the Wedding of the Year, Obama confirmed that he will not be attending nor was he invited to Chelsea Clinton's forthcoming nuptials—not that he ever anticipated a save the date card to begin with.
"I've got to say, it would be tough enough having one president at a wedding, you don't want two presidents at a wedding."
He also said he understood the Clintons' desire to keep the guest list to a minimum and lay off the star invites, something he very much will be emulating when the day comes (far, far in the future) for him to walk his own daughters down the aisle.
"I'm letting you guys know now, you probably will not be invited to Malia or Sasha's wedding."
And seeing as how he is the president and all, talk eventually made it's way back to politics and the moment everyone was waiting for: a bit of a smackdown between him and Elisabeth Hasselbeck. No prizes for guessing who came out on top for that one.
After the resident conservative attempted to nail the leader of the free world by hammering home her distaste for his administration's boast of "saved jobs," particularly as so many Americans remain out of work, Obama quickly set her straight, to the whoops and hollerings of a suddenly not-so-impartial audience.
"I think the word 'saved' is what's troubling people," Hasselbeck said before Obama jumped in.
"It makes a difference, though, if your job was one on the ones that was saved," he said, more or less ending Hasselbeck's contribution to the show.
Come to think of it, maybe he should come on more often.
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Go behind the scenes of Obama's visit in our Tweet Peeks gallery!