ON TV: ELECTION '08 - Ho-hum, the guest's another candidate - Media-savvy presidential hopefuls go hunting for votes in the late-night wilderness.
"My first guest tonight is a candidate for president of the United States . . . " is a refrain already echoing across the late-night talk show battlefield.
Last week Democrat Barack Obama dropped by "The Daily Show With Jon Stewart" on Comedy Central, which the previous week entertained John McCain, who this week did "The Tonight Show With Jay Leno," whose guest next week might well be Republican Fred Thompson, who, The Times reported, is eyeing a "Tonight Show" appearance to coincide with his initial, official foray into the race.
In talk show booking terms, the 2008 presidential campaign has come to resemble a large Hollywood ensemble movie, multiple actors fanning across the wilderness of late-night TV to plug the same product.
This is probably why there was a noticeable lack of ceremony to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's appearance Thursday night on "The Late Show With David Letterman" -- a ho-hum-ness that suggests both how neutralized these spots have become and how adept the candidates are at this particular ritual of the trail.
The narrative on Clinton is that she's a highly intelligent Machiavellian without hobbies; while her husband made talk show history with his saxophone, you can't imagine seeing her play the flute or cello having the same effect.
As the dean of late-night inquisitors, Letterman is particularly arch and counterintuitive, but he began the interview by asking what kind of summer jobs Clinton had growing up, conjuring for us the human being inside the pol. He was wearing kid gloves, waiting until the third segment and time was running short to say: "It occurs to me, and help me through this, that likely there will be an American military presence in the country of Iraq forever. That seem about right?"
"I sure hope not," she said to Letterman's Iraq question, then ticked off her Iraq platform -- withdraw troops, pressure the Iraqi government, increase diplomacy in the region -- having already skated through Letterman's question about the tens of millions it takes to run for president while her own campaign finds itself ensnared in headlines about contributor Norman Hsu, taken to jail Friday on an outstanding warrant dating to a 1992 grand larceny case.
Clinton's instrument is her drive, and on Letterman she played what amounted to a 20-minute solo. She reminded Letterman of the jokes he's made about her pantsuits and said of becoming the first woman president: "I think it's a good barrier for America to break."
