Obama ‘slow jams’ on student loans with Jimmy Fallon

Alternately serious and silly, President Obama weighed in on the ongoing Secret Service scandal and even “slow jammed” the news as he taped an appearance on NBC’s “Late Night With Jimmy Fallon” on Tuesday.

Obama, already the first sitting president to appear on “The Tonight Show,” “The Late Show” and “The Daily Show,” treaded even deeper into the overnight hours as part of his two-day, three-state tour of college campuses to press his case to extend lower interest rates for some student loan programs.

The White House has explained often that placing the president in settings such as “Late Night” ensures his message is being communicated to all swaths of Americans in an increasingly fragmented media environment.

But there’s seemingly a second motivation for the “POTUS with the most-est,” as he was called: to try to amp up his cool factor four years after his initial run for the Oval Office boosted interest and turnout among young voters.

At the taping, which was on the campus of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Obama talked about his college days, pointing out his Afro when Fallon held up a picture of him.

Fallon earlier made light of the Secret Service prostitution scandal in his monologue, saying he was “having the best time” hanging out with agents as he prepared for the show.

Obama himself later called the work of the agency that protects him and his family “incredible.”

“A couple of knuckleheads shouldn’t detract from that they do,” he said. “What they were thinking, I don’t know. That’s why they’re not there anymore.”

They were his first public comments in more than a week on the incident, which overshadowed a weekend trip to the Summit of the Americas in Cartagena, Colombia. Obama had said at a news conference in Colombia on April 15 that he expected a “thorough” and “rigorous” investigation.

Asked about GOP rival Mitt Romney, Obama said the two were “not friends,” but that his wife, Ann, was “lovely.” He added that Romney “seems like somebody who cares about his family.”

Original source: Obama ‘slow jams’ on student loans with Jimmy Fallon