Cheap shots, with no kisses

Obama certainly has that same abashed stammer as Cooper's courteous encyclopedist in Ball of Fire (1941). But can McCain match Barbara Stanwyck for street wisdom? Not to mention legs!

A fine romance, my friend, this is:

Obama also had warm words for Sen. John McCain when Leno asked Obama about his “bromance” with the GOPer. “That’s how a classic romantic comedy goes,” he quipped. “You know, initially you’re not getting along and then you keep on bumping into each other.”

In McCain’s home state of Arizona, Obama said he wants to make private investors, not Uncle Sam, responsible for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, while still giving Americans access to 30-year mortgages with fixed interest rates.

How to win the senator's heart, huh? But the fun part was trying to figure out which screwball comedy they were emulating.

Meeting cute, 2008. Photo by Reuters/Jim Young, via.

McCain took it to another level:

That prompted CNN’s John Berman to ask the follow-up question to McCain that America needs right now: which romantic comedy best encapsulates what's going on with McCain and Obama right now. "Given my age," the "December" in the August-December romance joked, "how about 'The Honeymooners’ or maybe ‘I Love Lucy,’” he replied, adding "The point is, I want to work with the president where the nation’s interests are at stake and we can work together." 

Obama as the passive-aggressive brainy Trixie? McCain as avant-la-lettre hipster? (Way avant-la-lettre; in fact written language was invented when he was in officer training in Mesopotamia)

Leave it to Politico to really confuse the issue:

Actor Matt Damon says he feels like President Barack Obama dumped him.

“He broke up with me,” Damon told BET in an interview published on Thursday.

The star, formerly a big supporter of the president, charged that Obama has “some explaining to do” for his actions in the White House.

If Matt Damon is Ricky, that means Obama is Lucy! And that means McCain has to be dyspeptic Ethel Mertz.

In the dénouement, Lucy names Ethel to the Supreme Court, but Ethel forgets she left a cake in the oven. Disaster!