We already knew that President Barack Obama would be a guest on NBC’s Running Wild with Bear Grylls, a reality show where the television survivalist teaches celebrities what to do if they are ever left alone in the wilderness. (How an average celebrity would be trapped in the woods without a publicist, agent, manager and personal trainer, we’ll never know, but maybe they’re planning for the zombie apocalypse.) Now, thanks to the Today show, we get a glimpse of what the president will be doing on the show: chowing down on a salmon that was half-eaten by a bear.
What exactly is this all about? Why would the commander-in-chief do something like reality television, which has a reputation as dicey as, well, a half-eaten salmon left on an Alaskan riverbed? This segment was filmed on a trip to Alaska where Obama was calling attention to the ravages of climate change, so this might be an extension of that initiative, like when Michelle Obama went on Jimmy Fallon to draw attention to her Let’s Move campaign.
But there is something else at play here. It’s something about the office of the president and how so many Americans want to feel like they can “have a beer” with the man who holds the nuclear launch codes. Wouldn’t you want to have a beer with a reality TV star (or, in the case of the Real Housewives, a glass of pinot grigio that is spring-loaded to be thrown on someone)? But Obama never has to run for re-election again; I don’t think he’s too concerned about his likability at this point in his career.
Or maybe this is just some sort of cold war of macho pictures between Obama and Vladimir Putin, who would like the world to think that he wrestles with grizzlies in Siberia in his spare time.
Though I am a huge fan of reality television, my initial reaction to this clip was one of shame. Not even Bill Clinton, a man famous for literally sullying the office of the presidency, would stoop so low. But there is something fun at play here too. Obama really seems to be enjoying himself and acts as if he was a fan of Grylls before the show. This is a man who is using the power of the presidency to just do something that he thought would be really cool. Watching Obama, a likable, charismatic and very intelligent man, have a good time definitely seems like something I would tune into. It has to be scores better than watching Michelle Rodriguez eat a urine-soaked mouse.
Obama is a relatively young man and he is in the twilight of his presidency. If he wants to trade on his profile to help climate change and amuse himself and the viewing public, I say more power to him. He’s going to have many years after the White House and is going to need something to do. Maybe joining the entertainment industry isn’t a bad step. Then again, it hasn’t worked out that well for Arnold Schwarzenegger.
