Personal friend barack, as he has asked me not to call him, president obama. Well, it turns out the president and i had so much to talk about, we actually couldnt fit it all in one show. I mean, we could have, but that would have meant more time with an american icon, and fewer commercials for nasal decongestant and obviously no one wants that. So in the great tradition of this postthanksgiving season, tonight, im going to serve up some delicious leftovers, in what im calling a late shows chockablockabarack obamarama extravagama as you know, the former president has been making the rounds recently to promote his new book, a Promised Land. Its the story of Barack Obamas first 27 months as president , and, at almost 800 pages, it will take most people 27 months to finish. Its the first memoir meant to be read in realtime. My favorite part about a Promised Land is that, just like most books, on the dust jacket, its got a little author bio barack obama was the 44th president of the United States elected in november of 2008, etc, etc. Who is that for, exactly . Who picks up this book without knowing who wrote it . Lets see, im a big fan of promises, and im a land mammal. Let me find out who this barack obama guy is. A Promised Land has been a long time coming. President obama says it took him two and a half years longer than expected to finish. Not surprising. If he dictated it, the pauses would eat up big chunk of that. This book is already a huge deal, selling a recordbreaking 1. 7 million copies in the first week. In fact, demand for a Promised Land in america was so high that the International Publisher has printed 1. 5 million copies in germany to bring over on cargo ships. But im assured customers wont notice the difference between the american version and the german one. And if youre happy to see obama back in the spotlight again, youre not alone independent bookstores in particular are reporting unprecedented firstday sales, which could prove crucial in recovering some of the losses suffered during the shutdown. How many times does this man need to save the economy . He propped up the auto industry, now publishing, and next week, hes bringing back americas shopping malls by getting his ears pierced at claires. Obama is a democrat, but in his early years, he did flirt with other political ideologies. And i do mean flirt. As he says in his book, a performative interest in the writings of political philosophers like karl marx and frantz fanon gave him something to say to the longlegged socialist who lived in his dorm and the ethereal bisexual who wore mostly black. Oh, yeah, nothing gets the ladies going like marxism. flirty hey, baby, are you religion . Because youre the opiate of my masses. Lets make like the proletariat and seize each others means of production. Obama also reveals who had the final say on one of his most iconic slogans. He was pitched a campaign ad where he looked into the camera and said yes we can. Obama says i thought it was corny, but the director showed it to michelle, who deemed it not corny at all. Thank goodness Michelle Obama told him not to play it so cool otherwise we wouldve been stuck with posters that said hope, or whatever, no big deal. Now that the book is on the shelves, obama is not resting on his laurels. He and the former first lady have announced theyll be producing a netflix sketch Comedy Series about the transition chaos from his administration to number 45. A netflix show about taking over the white house from obama . Please call it orange is the new black. But youve heard enough of me talking about barack obama. Lets change things up and watch me talking to barack obama. Jim . Thank you so much for coming down. You needed a change in venue. Stephen i got nothing else going on right now. laughter yeah, its good to sea ya. Stephen nice to tee ze you, too. How have you been . You look well. Stephen thank you very much. You look well, too. Thats an exceptionally nice suit. Stephen thank you very much. Do you not own a tie . I dont believe in ties anymore. Stephen really . Funerals and weddings, the only time youre going to see me in a tie. Stephen now that youre no longer the president of the United States, do i still have to be dignified around you . No. You werent dignified previous previously. After eight months, my body is no longer suit spaipped shaped. Listen, you look good in your sought, you shaved, shoes polished. Stephen thank you very much. I think she just wanted to see you upgraded a little bit. Stephen i think so, too. By the way, i am enjoying a Promised Land. Thank you. Stephen you write in the book that one of the things you notice about becoming president is no one ever calls you by your first name again. Yeah. Stephen i havent seen you in the last four years, but ive spent a lot of time with your life. Traveled to london together and interviewed for her book in nashville, se gave me a cake on my birthday, danced for my birthday. She actually got an email from one of her assistants saying she is done with me calling her madam first lady and i am to call her michelle in so Uncertain Terms and i have not seen her to do that yet, but i am going to get the courage to do that when i see her next. Mr. President , is there anything you would like to say to me . No. You know what, i take that back. Stephen im sorry . You dont have to call me mr. President , you can just call me president. Stephen thank you. Thank you. All right. Stephen on behalf of a lot of americans, i think i can say with confidence that weve missed you. Thank you. Stephen these last four years. Did you miss you . Did you ever look at something going on in the news and go, you know what this situation needs . Barack obama. laughing ive said this before, people would ask me, knowing what you know now, do you wish you had a third term . And i used to say, if i could make an arrangement where i had a standin, a frontman or frontwoman and they had an ear piece in and i was in my basement or sweats looking through the stuff and i could deliver the lines, but somebody else was doing all the talking and ceremony, i would be fine with that because i found the work fascinating. I mean, i write about the even on my worst days, i found puzzling out, you know, these big, complicated, difficult issues, especially if you were working with some great people, to be professionally really satisfying. But i do not miss having to wear a tie every day. Stephen are there aspects of the job because we found out from your successor that theres a whole bunch of stuff you dont have to do and people still look at you as president. Are there a few things you chucked out and you went, oh, if only i had known i didnt have to do that . I think there was a lot. Stephen respond to subpoenas . Follow the constitution. Stephen yeah, thats a graying drag. That constitution is a drag. You say youve written this book for yum people of the next generation. Youre 59, im 56. What would you like us gen xeres to know . Get out of the way. Stephen okay, boomer. laughing i will say i am so optimistic about our kids, and theyre smarter than we were, theyre more sophisticated, theyre kinder, theyre environmentally more conscious, they believed in stuff, as i write in the preface, that maybe we gave lip service to but didnt want to live out because it required some sacrifice and you see them living out their commitments in really powerful ways. But we have to be willing to give them the chance to remake institutions and change old habits. So they make me open mystic, i just want to make sure that we dont screw things up so bad that, by the time theyre in charge, that, you know, it becomes that much harder. Stephen by the way, have you listened to your own audio book of this . I know you recorded it. I did record it, so i was listening to it while i was reading. I enjoy the audio book. You can listen to your audio book at double speed and cant tell its going faster. Your voice is higher isnt it . Stephen no, your voice stays at the same level, just as normal human talking speed. Okay. laughing what else have you got. Stephen hold that thawvment back with more of the 44th president of the United States. Barack obama. Announcer a late show with stephen colbert. Sponsored by hersheys, the original cookies and cream. Hersheys. The original cookies n creme. And ask your doctor about biktarvy. 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For everyone on your list. Youve got the holidays, and weve got you. With all the gift for less. At ross. Yes for less stephen hey, everybody. Were back with the author of a Promised Land, president barack obama. What do you think of people who say it would be good if republican held the senate because democrats will go too far if they control everything. I experienced divided government and i will tell you that gridlock and dysfunction is a recipe for not only not solving big problems but also growing cynicism among the electorate that further polarizes folks. Stephen why werent you nicer to Mitch Mcconnell . Why werent you nicer to him . Let me tell you, of all the arguments made during my presidency, the notion that my big problem was not schmoozing Mitch Mcconnell enough was more of the more frustrating ones i heard but was entirely accepted. Its still conventional wisdom to this day in parts of washington. Mitch mcconnell understood, and i write about this extensively, that, if you throw sand in the gears and stuff doesnt work, the average voter doesnt really know why its not working, they dont know whos in charge, they dont know the details of senate procedure, what they do understand is the president s in charge, and were still seeing the same arguments that we used to see. So thats good for the opposition party. Stephen if i only had one question to ask you right now, it would be, what happens now . What the hell happens now . Yeah. Stephen when you have half or 70 of the republicans or maybe about 40 of the public think that joe biden won by cheating . How does he reach those people . Well, look, i think hes in a good position to make the effort. The fact that he won is indicative of the message he sent of wanting to unify the country. I do think people are exhausted by just this, you know, you know, World Wrestling federation, constant cage match, and people just want to feel as if a day passes without it being dominated by something crazy coming out of the white house or washington. Stephen dont get me wrong. You are a great president and people accused you of being a celebrity. There were days i did not think about you. You did not think about me. And i think joe will get back to that. I think he will have some success in Building Back social trust because he is naturally someone who is empathetic and cares about people. But i think that were going to have a larger challenge in figuring out what to do about this splintered media landscape. Ive said this before, but i cant emphasize this enough, when you and i were growing up, you had walter cronkite, david brinkley, john chancellor. It wasnt scripit wasnt scintig television, but whether you were a conservative or liberal, you got your news from the same place, so you had some common baseline of facts, and now you dont. And how you change that formula, with the internet and 5,000 cable stations and the death of smalltown newspapers and even local tv now being bought out by sinclair so that theyre now pumping out sort of a more uniform ideological line on everything, that makes things more difficult, and i think that joes presidency will help lower the temperature, but the underlying challenge of us getting back to the point where we can at least agree that, lets say joe biden got more votes, you know, if thats we can argue about why, whether he deserved to get more votes, et cetera, but he got more votes. Stephen what do you say to this argument, you say joe biden got more votes. Yeah. Stephen how could he have gotten more votes if the president won . He won, so the other guy getting more votes feels fishy, doesnt it . When you look at it that way, you have to understand how other people are looking at it. Get outside your bubble, sir. Think about how somebody else is looking at it. He won so why are there so many votes on the other side . Somethings wrong. Stephen thank you. On behalf of so many americans, i accept your apology. I was talking to friend of mine about this and i was trying to use a simple analogy that i think everybody understands, whats something we still have in common, and despite controversies around c. T. , et cetera, people stilt watch football. So you imagine the super bowl and, you know, the games going on and touchdowns are supposed to be worth six points with the extra point, unless you go for two, and field goals are worth three points, and youre keeping score the whole time, and there are refs, and at the end of the game a teams won and somebody says, no field goals arent worth ethree, or that wasnt really a touchdown. Stephen hugo chavez kept blocking the field goal from the grave weve all been watching, and i guess, if you had the other people just refused to acknowledge it and you had half the league say were not sure its true, you would have a similar controversy, but when that starts happening, the game breaks down and in this case its our democracy, our democracy starts falling apart. Imagine if, going forward, every single election is treated this way at every level, imagine if democrats start acting this way stephen is that part of the danger that hes broken the seal on that idea. That is the concern that i think we all have. Joe bidens going to be the next president , Kamala Harris is going to be the next Vice President , but we dont want to get into a pattern where we just are willing to throw out what weve agreed to previously, including our constitutional structure, just because we find it politically expedient. Stephen a lot of president s, once they leave office, becomes friends or are familiar with the other president. They lay down their sword and shield a little bit. Youve played golf with president george w. Bush and bill clinton. Do you have a tee time with the current president yet . I do not. From what i understand, hes a pretty good golfer. Stephen all right. I understand, shockingly enough, there are sometimes problems with the scoring, and whether hes keeping track of his strokes. Stephen thats hugo chavez again. Thats his caddy. Its surprising. Stephen i love the plans of the Obama Library on the south side of chicago. Its beautiful. Looks like star flight headquarters landed there. You have a museum, gym where you can play basketball, bumper cars, water slide, what else. The bumper cars, no. Stephen you couldnt fund that . No, unless you want to confuse that. Stephen colbert memorial bumper cars. Stephen somebody price it and ill think about it. This could end up being not just the goal is not just have some mausoleum to me. Its rather to create a living Dynamic Center around which young people can get inspired and even try their hand at and learn about how their voices can bring about change. Stephen one of the details i like is this is going to be the first president ial library thats all digital. Theres no paper. Is that because after this book there is no paper left . Thats it. Stephen is this why there was a paper shortage in the spring . Did all the toilet paper fete rerouted and repulped into this thing . A lot of pages, 740 pages. 701, the actual stuff to read. Stephen index is there and im not in it. 748 pages and i dont even get mentioned in here. We did a bunch of stuff together. Volume two. Stephen okay, good. A lot of similar stories between these two. A little crossover in things like this. Yes. Stephen in her book, meeting and your courtship to your engagement, 63 pages. Three pages. Three pages are you trying to get me in trouble . Stephen im just surprised your editor didnt stop you from getting in trouble. Number one, im not going to challenge her version to have the events. So shes done it, thats how it happened. Stephen yeah. Econdly, in my second book, i talk about meeting her, already. So ive spread the story of our meeting over three books and she just condensed it all into one. Stephen we have to take another break, sir, but stick around. Well be right back with Michelle Obamas husband. At last my love has come along my lonely days are over oat p . 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You write about a trip to egypt and seeing an ancient hieroglyphic, a painting or drawing on the wall of a tomb that one of your staffers says, boy, that really looks like you. You saw it and imagined the life of the man in the etching and said all of it is forgot b now, none of it mattered, the pharaoh, slave, vandal all turned to dust, just like every speech i delivered, law i passed and decision i made would soon be forgotten just as i and all those i love would some day turn to dust. Are you okay . Because if i saw that in the diary of a 13yearold girl, i would go, were going to get you some help. Look, you know, i should point out that that is in the same chapter that then ends in normandy, and i guess part of what that chapter is about is, you know, part of how to maintain your steady state in this highpressured job, for me, at least, was to take the long view and to remind yourself, look, there are going to be ups and downs, there are poll numbers, somebody is aggravating you, you lost a vote on this, that or the other, and just reminding yourselves that, in the sweep of history, this is not tragic, whats happening right now. There are bigger things that matter. But you have to keep that in mind, you know, the fact that it all turns to dust, with this other point of view, which is, within the time frame of Human History that at least we can comprehend, actually what youre doing does matter, and you have to kind of maintain those two ideas at the same time. If you understand the magnitude of what youre doing every single moment, then youre going to be paralyzed. So occasionally, you have to pull back and say, look, you do your best and you will be okay. But then you also have to say, man, this counts, you know, peoples lives are saved, somebodys going to get healthcare, some childs going to get education. You know, if you make this step instead of that step, maybe, you know, this country doesnt descend into conflict and civil war, youre going to make mistakes, there are going to be unintended consequences, you have to try anyway. Stephen when you became president , how quick did you look back at senator barack obama and say that guy doesnt know what hes talking about, that guy needs a talking to . Yeah, there were a couple of times where you, particularly around counterterrorism issues, where i think it is different when youre on the sidelines than when you are in the seat and you are seeing coming through the transom just a series of clear, actionable intelligence indicating that some attack might be taking place, and your overriding concern about making sure the country is safe, how you balance that concern with Civil Liberties issues, with they canning sure that you are with making sure that you are following the law, there are certain things for me that were clear, brightline rules, we dont torture, we dont indefinitely hold people, but there were other issues where, as a senator, my attitude was, you know, very hardnosed, you know, we shouldnt be doing this, we shouldnt be doing that and then, when youre in the middle of it, youre thinking, okay, but i really dont want this person to blow up a subway, how do we deal with that. Stephen would you put the Drone Program into the thing that your senator barack obama did not understand as well as president barack obama because that is something you got a lot of criticism over. The Drone Program i deal more in the second volume because what i actually discovered was that the concerns were both legitimate but not always understood. The problem with the Drone Program was not that it caused an inordinate amount of civilian casualties, although even one civilian casualty is tragic, but it actually, the drones probably had less Collateral Damage, which is the antiseptic way of saying it killed people who were innocent and not just targets, probably had fewer less Collateral Damage than if you send in troops, for example, and youre in a firefight, or youre dropping ordinates using conventional pilots. The problem is it starts giving you the illusion that its not war. Stephen the distance makes it sterile. Yes, and what i discovered, and i write about this in the second volume, the machinery of it started becoming too easy, and i had to actually impose internally a substantial set of reforms in the process to step back and refinedmind everyone in and remind everyone involved this isnt target practice. Each time we make this decision, we are engaged in the most profound act that any government can take, which is, you know, using lethal force against people, and there have to be better checks and balances in doing it. Stephen you have a famously unleaky white house, no drama obama and no leaks in this white house. Ive spoken to former Staff Members of yours who said there were heated debates over the use of the drones. Yeah. Stephen and i said, how come we didnt hear about this . Like, for those out here who didnt understand this use of executive power right. Stephen a little leak on those heated debates would have helpful for us to understand the thinking that went into this. Thats part of what i mean about the imbalance where so much of Foreign Policy and military policy is now entirely housed in the executive branch, that congress generally is and this is true for both sides stephen you mean both sides of the political aisle . Both sides of the political aye aisle, theres a tendency among members of congress to say well let the president make a Foreign Policy decision and well see did it work or not and weigh in based on how its stephen well keep our powder drew but not against our enemy, maybe our political enemies. Yeah. And some of this is inevitable. Its one of the challenges of these terrorist networks is that they have because theyre not state actors, you dont know you dont have a clear victory, you dont have mcarthur and an armistice. So you had the entire apparatus of security thats grown up that is somewhat perpetual, and i think one of the big jobs i had was to try to, first of all, not mke that the endall and beall of our Foreign Policy, to try to create legal structures around it, and i think that i was successful in a lot of respects, but there are some areas, like closing guantanamo, that i couldnt get it done. Stephen it was moves in place that couldnt be undone . I was surprised as commanderinchief i could not shut down a facility that was both unnecessary and, in my view, contrary to our legal traditions. Stephen did you ever ask for information and they said we cant tell you . No, but i will tell you that there were times when i asked for information and it came slower than i wanted. Stephen when you say, get me the declaration of independence, lemon juice and a blow dryer and were going to nicolas cage this boy and find a treasure map on the back. There are times when prying information out of the bowels overan agency can be challenging. Stephen u. F. O. S did you ask about that . Certainly asked about it. Cant tell you about it. Stephen if you would say there are none, there are none. You just 100 showed your cards. Feel free to think that. Stephen i do. It makes me happy to think you wont tell me about u. F. O. S. Can i say it used to be u. F. O. S, roz wel roswell was te biggest conspiracy, and now thats tame to think the government might have an alien space ship. Stephen now the biggest conspiracy is people in michigan vote. Taking a break. Back with more of president barack obama. You can feel it all over can i get a quarter pounder with cheese . Make that two . Thank you. Aye but i thought you said. But you got two. Mmhm. Get it at mcdonalds when you buy one of your faves and get another for just a dollar. Get it at mcdonalds when you buy one of your faves imagine the places well go. Together. 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Welcome back to a late show. Honor to be sitting down with president barack obama. I talked to your wife about this. Yall seem strikingly normal. Like if i still lived in chicago, if i had stayed there, im sure we would run into each other. We would hang out. Stephen you seem like people we would know. Not everybody in washington, d. C. Seems that way after being here for 40 years. Theyre lovely people, but they dont seem like just folks. Right. Stephen what did you think you got from, and you touch on this in the book, being a community organizer, to snsht, to president of the United States, to out, that allowed you to attain a little bit of your humanity or your commonality of the American Experience . You know, i think part of it was my political success happened late. You know, if you think about, lets say, bill clinton, he was, i think, the youngest governor ever in arkansas. Joe biden was a u. S. Senator at 29. You know, at 40, i had just lost a congressional race, i maxed out on my credit cards, you know, im going to the Grocery Store with maria and sasha in tow malia and sasha in tow. Actually malia, because sasha was born a year later. And, so, we had lived a normal, middle class life with Student Loans and washing your own car and, you know, waiting for luggage at the airport, you know, coming back from, you know, a vacation. And, so, we then get kind of shot out of a canon. But youre formed by that point, you know. As i used to describe to folks right after i gave that speech at the Democratic National convention, i wasnt smarter the day after that speech than i had been the day before. My first book was no different, the one that sold 14,000 copies and then sold 3 million copies after that speech, right. Its just, suddenly, youre getting all this attention. So, i think, for michelle and for me, we both took the outsized fame with a grain of salt. And then, as i write about in the book, it also helped to have my motherinlaw around, who is the least pretentious person i know. Stephen i have met her. Hes down to earth and she doesnt understand all the fuss, and, you know, and she was great to have around, also, with the girls. I write about the fact that probably maybe one of my greatest successes and michelles greatest success in those eight years was raising these great girls who dont have an attitude and dont feel entitled, but part of it is because my motherinlaw, if she saw them acting bratty or you guys havent done anything, why are you acting special . Youre just here for the ride, you know. And theyd suddenly go, youre right, grandma. So she was a huge blessing. Stephen in that speech in 2004 in the Democratic National convention, i was in boston watching it from across the street, we were struck i was watching it with me and jon stewart and some others were watching you give this speech and were saying, whos this barack obama guy . And i believe thats the speech where you threw in i am the grandson of a goat herder. Boom that is the Humble Beginnings neutron bomb. Did you know, lets put this in here and ill blow son of a milk man off the streenchts goat herder is hard to top. You have to go back to log cabin days to beat goat herder. Stephen we have to pay the bills again. Everybody stick around. Back with more president brach. Really. My first idea was in one quarter of an hour, your savings will tower. Over you. Figuratively speaking. But thats not catchy, is it . Thats not going to swim about in your brain. So i thought, what about. 15 minutes. 15 percent. Serendipity. 15 minutes could save you 15 or more on car insurance. Bright colors. 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The teams been working around the clock. Wire, weve had to rethink our whole approach. Were going to give togetherness. Logistically, its been a nightmare. Im not sure its going to work. Itll work. I didnt know you were listening. Stephen hey, everybody, welcome back. I cant believe i get to talk to president barack obama. Barack obama, after eight years of president and numerous interviews, im sure you have been asked every question in the world. We would like to do a segment were calling questions were pretty sure barack obama has never been asked. Dairy queen blizzard or frosties from wendys. Frosties from wendys. Stephen best monopoly playing piece . The car. Stephen thats right, what did i say before . The car. It doesnt tip over. Its got good stability. Stephen its the car. What goes in a toaster. Toast. Stephen bread goes in the toaster. Toast comes out. That was a trick question. Stephen how does dolly parton not have a president ial medal of freedom . Thats a mistake. Stephen yes. Im shocked. Stephen looking back on your eight years, do you realize thats the mistake that you made. Actually, that was a screwup. Im surprised i think i assumed that she had already got one and that was incorrect. Stephen i assume, too. Im surprised. She deserves one. Ill call biden. Stephen do it. Were a couple of days before thanksgiving. C. D. C. Is urging families to just do zoom thanksgivings right now, dont have your friends over, so i know you cant invite me because it just wouldnt be say, it wouldnt be the responsible thing to do. So you know i cant come and im not going to come, but just for niceties, would you like to invite me . Because you know i cant come. I did invite your wife. Stephen what . I wouldnt invite you. Stephen you would invite my wife . Honey i also think that she will be observing all the period o prots better than you. Stephen can by her plus one . Well think about it. Stephen okay. President obama, ive really enjoyed talking to you about part one of your memoirs. Thank you. Stephen thank you sphoirting down for part one of our interview. Its been fantastic. Stephen yeah. Stephen well, thats it for a late show, everybody. I want to thank my guest president barack obama. Okay, hes gone. Is there any chance do we know if hes coming back . And everyone is gone. Theres no one here. Do we know how im getting home . Im sure someone will come back. Good night. Hllo captioning sponsored by cbs captioned by Media Access Group at wgbh access. Wgbh. Org stephen hello is there room service here . Captioning sponsored by cbs the late late show, oh, oh the late late show, ooh the late late show, oh, oh the late late show oh, oh its the late late show