President Obama's scheduled appearance Tuesday on "The Tonight Show" will mark his sixth visit to the program, his fourth as president and his first without having to worry about running for office again.
For Leno, the presidential guest likely marks the final leg of his groundbreaking TV journey with Obama – and the unofficial start of a victory lap of sorts as he prepares to leave "Tonight," presumably for good.
Tuesday's show offers a possible last chance to watch the easygoing, if symbiotic relationship between a canny show business survivor and a Hollywood-friendly politician who has made more late night entertainment show appearances than any sitting president.
Obama, who initially sat across from Leno as a freshman U.S. senator in 2006, became the first working Oval Office occupant to visit “Tonight" two years later, less than two months into his first term. His choice signified a major nod to Leno and “Tonight” after a presidential campaign in which Obama also spent couch time with David Letterman and Jon Stewart, among others.
As Obama and Leno, both, in a sense, in their second administrations, prepare for their potentially last meeting, check out a couple of clips from past interviews:
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Hester is founding director of the award-winning, multi-media NYCity News Service at the City University of New York Graduate School of Journalism. He is the former City Editor of the New York Daily News, where he started as a reporter in 1992. Follow him on Twitter.