"Today Show" host Matt Lauer ain't got nothing on President Obama.
Both of them are globe-trotters, but that's where the similarities end.
While Lauer couldn't even get a name right, Obama – whose task was infinitely harder – appears to have largely succeeded in reaching out to the Muslim world.
Hopefully they will choose to touch his noodly appendage.
Morning lineup:
Meet the Press: Preempted by coverage of the French Open.
Face the Nation: Senior White House Adviser David Axelrod; Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-GA).
This Week: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton; Roundtable: Republican Strategist Matthew Dowd, Cynthia Tucker (The Atlanta Journal-Constitution), Claire Shipman (ABC News), and George Will (ABC News).
Fox News Sunday: Member of the White House Council of Economic Advisers Austan Goolsbee; Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL); Chairman/CEO of Google Eric Schmidt; Chairman of Thayer Capital Partners Fred Malek; Acting FCC Chairman Michael Copps; Roundtable: Bill Kristol (The Weekly Standard), Mara Liasson (NPR), Charles Krauthammer (The Washington Post), and Juan Williams (Fox News).
State of the Union: David Axelrod; Mayor of Spring Hill, TN Michael Dinwiddle; Mayor of Flint, MI Michael Brown; Former CNN Anchor Bernard Shaw; Reliable Sources: Richard Wolffe (Newsweek), Chrystia Freeland (The Financial Times); Jonathan Martin (Politico); Talk Show Host Bill Press; Kathleen Parker (The Washington Post).
The Chris Matthews Show: Dan Rather (HDNet); John Heilemann (New York Magazine); Katty Kay (BBC); Gloria Borger (CNN).
Fareed Zakaria GPS: Egyptian Dissident Saad Eddin Ibrahim; Author Juan Cole; Palestinian Legislator Hana Ahsrwai; Ben Gurion University History Professor Benny Morris; Former Deputy Prime Minister of Malaysia Anwar Ibrahim; Iranian Journalist Maziar Bahari; Rami Khouri (The Daily Star); Author Michael Lewis.
Primetime viewing:
60 Minutes will feature an interview with Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, and an interview with country singer Dolly Parton. Both segments have previously aired.
The National Geographic Channel will present China's Elephant Man — which follows the story of Huang Chuncai, a man who decides to undergo risky surgery to alleviate an extreme condition (neurofibromatosis) that has stunted his growth, left his bones undeveloped, caused his spine to buckle and restricted his breathing.
Back from their weeklong Memorial Day vacation...
Jon Stewart looked at President Obama's trip to the Middle East, and the way Fox News covered it.
The Daily Show
Monday: Author Gretchen Peters ("Seeds of Terror")
Tuesday: Author Peter Schiff ("The Little Book of Bull Moves in Bear Markets")
Wednesday: Documentarian Saad Mosheni ("Afghan Star")
Thursday: "CBS Evening News" Anchor Katie Couric
Stephen Colbert – who guest-edited the current issue of Newsweek magazine – took another look at the state of marriage in America.
The Colbert Report will be broadcasting from Iraq next week, where Stephen will be "Bob Hoping" it for the troops. No information on guests is available.
And speaking of marriage...
Former Senator/relationship expert Rick Santorum (R-PA) had some dating tips for the First Couple.
"Here we have a president of the United States who says that marriage is cool. You have respect for your wife, and you treat her with the respect and dignity that she deserves. And she is part of this team. And it’s not just part of professional team, but it’s also part of a personal, romantic team. I think that’s all great. So I think it’s important that he keeps having his date night. [...]
I think he has to realize that flying to New York is... self-indulgent. Go down to the corner bar and have a drink, a shot and a beer. It does not matter where you go with your wife, is that it’s with your wife."
Meanwhile, unmarried Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) worried that a Latina Supreme Court justice might keep the white man down.
Although Graham said he would not use the word racist to describe Sotomayor, he indicated that her past statements raise concerns that, as a Supreme Court justice, she may not treat white males fairly. "Being an average, everyday white guy, that doesn’t exactly make me feel good," Graham said.
Those sentiments were echoed by black eyed peabrain Michael Steele, who somehow managed to refrain from saying anything stupid enough to warrant inclusion in last week's edition of Sunday Talk.
STEELE: And God help you if you’re a white male coming before her bench.
On a related note...
Average, everyday white guy Gov. Mark Sanford (R) was subjected to some reverse discrimination by the South Carolina Supreme Court this week when they unanimously ordered him to accept federal stimulus funds he sought to reject.
And below average white gal Gov. Sarah Palin (R) tried to grasp why the Alaska legislature is likely to override her veto of stimulus money.
"Since when can you get out of huge national debt by creating trillions of dollars of new debt?" Palin asked. "It all really is so backwards and skewed as to sound like absolute nonsense when some of this economic policy is explained." [...]
"Some in Washington would approach our economic woes in ways that absolutely defy Economics 101, and they fly in the face of principles, providing opportunity for industrious Americans to succeed or to fail on their own accord," she said. "Those principles it makes you wonder what the heck some in Washington are trying to accomplish here."
Palin also took a little detour from political correctness into Michelle Bachmann territory.
"We need to be aware of the creation of a fearful population, and fearful lawmakers, being led to believe that big government is the answer, to bail out the private sector, because then government gets to get in there and control it," she said. "And mark my words, this is going to be next, I fear, bail out next debt-ridden states. Then government gets to get in there and control the people."
Jebus, help us!
- Trix