Iowa, New Hampshire . . . ‘Tonight Show’?

The road to the White House apparently leads through Burbank.

First came Bill Bradley, followed by John McCain, both of whom appeared on “The Tonight Show With Jay Leno” last year, when the presidential race was still a blip on the radar. But things are heating up, as early primary results whittle down the field of nominees. Last week, McCain did a walk-on spot during a Leno sketch, and Thursday night Vice President Al Gore was expected to stop by for an interview. McCain is now scheduled to return for a sit-down interview March 1, his third “Tonight Show” appearance in the last six months.

“I’d like to think we have a good relationship with all the candidates,” says the man in the middle of it all, “Tonight Show” host Jay Leno, dismissing the notion that McCain is the show’s candidate of choice. “You can’t figure out my politics by watching the show,” Leno added. “Sometimes people think you’re a Republican because you do a lot of Clinton jokes. But Clinton’s the president.”

“The Tonight Show” is a welcome venue for the candidates, because Leno isn’t about to ask hardball questions, and his audience is younger and bigger than is possible to find on a cable news show. But beyond the political maneuvering lies the question of equal time, and whether federal election laws constrain a candidate’s attempt to use an entertainment program like “The Tonight Show” as a bully pulpit or personality platform.

News-oriented shows are generally exempt from equal-time rules, sometimes to the dismay of media watchdog groups, who feel the Federal Communications Commission has broadened exemptions too widely. But in the case of “The Tonight Show,” an entertainment program, equal-time rules do apply, and McCain’s Republican rivals have seven days from a McCain “Tonight Show” appearance to request equal time on the show, an opportunity Gov. George W. Bush hasn’t exercised, says a “Tonight Show” spokesperson.

Bush campaign spokesman Ari Fleischer would only say it’s “up in the air” whether Bush will join the late-night comedy fray. But Bradley, keeping pace with McCain, walked into a sketch on NBC’s “Late Night With Conan O’Brien” last week, though his campaign says there are no immediate plans for a follow-up “Tonight Show” appearance.

Pundits see the late-night comedy parade of politicians as proof that the candidates feel lampooning themselves is an expedient way to court the under-30 vote while countering their images as bloodless politicians. It’s a well-worn strategy (even Richard Nixon, in another time, appeared on “Laugh-In” saying, “Sock it to me”), but one that McCain, particularly, seems to be drawing on liberally.

During the New Hampshire primary, which he won handily, McCain spoofed his candidacy in a segment on Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show,” in which the Arizona senator’s wife helped a”Daily Show” reporter win a coveted spot on McCain’s campaign bus. Last week, he stepped into a “Tonight Show” sketch, and McCain’s communications director, Dan Schnur, says the candidate would also like to do ABC’s “Politically Incorrect,” the Bill Maher-hosted free-for-all discussion forum that can play like a cocktail party after the guests have had a few drinks.

Such efforts are underscored by a poll released last week from the Washington-based Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, which found that nearly half of the under-30 crowd get some of their information about the presidential race from late-night talk shows, with 37% citing shows including “Saturday Night Live” and “Politically Incorrect,” and 25% identifying MTV. One in 10 of all Americans said they learn something about the campaign from the likes of Leno and David Letterman.

Andy Kohut, who heads the Pew Research Center, said he thought those numbers might be even higher from similar polling data four years ago.

“Leno and Letterman lived off of Clinton and Lewinsky. I was wondering, ‘Well, have they developed a little bit of a political audience?’ Apparently not.”

But the political ignorance among “Tonight Show” viewers is part of what’s bringing McCain back, says Schnur.

“More and more voters, particularly young Americans, are getting their political news from alternative sources. The nightly news is a lecture. ‘The Tonight Show’ is a conversation. . . . There’s no question that appearing on these programs is a way to reach a younger audience. But it’s also a way to reach an audience that’s not obsessed by political news, as most of the people we deal with every day are.”

Leno, for his part, says he has no qualms about candidates using his show as a whistle-stop. As he put it, paraphrasing the words of satirist Harry Shearer: “Doing these shows is the [political] equivalent of going to different ethnic neighborhoods and eating their food.”

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“More and more voters, particularly young Americans, are getting their political news from alternative sources. The nightly news is a lecture. ‘The Tonight Show’ is a conversation.”

DAN SCHNUR, John McCain’s communications director