Paul Begala Discusses Obama's First Day in Office

Perennial I-Fave Paul Begala, a CNN political contributor, was warmly welcomed to the Imus in the Morning show today.

"He's been on the program a hundred times," said Imus. "And each time he's more annoying."

But nothing could bring down Begala's mood this morning, as the liberal weenie wished everyone, "Happy Change! Happy New America!" Begala said he is especially happy for guys like comedian Dick Gregory, "who put his body on the line for the civil rights movement," and paved the way for this historic moment in America. He often tells his children the story of Gregory sitting down at a lunch counter and being told that the restaurant didn't serve "N-words."

"And Dick looked him right in the eye and said, 'I don't want to eat an N-word, I want to eat a chicken,'" Begala joked.

A former counselor in President Bill Clinton's administration, Begala said he "could not be more impressed" with the way Obama has handled himself these first few days.

"Yesterday, his first full day, was so exciting," Begala gushed. "He keeps his central early campaign promise-he gathers the military leadership together and tells them that he wants a plan to redeploy our troops out of Iraq. He gathers his economic advisors together; he issues new presidential directives on ethics, on open government, ending a lot of the Cheney-Bush era secrecy. He put the cap on White House pay; he moves on citizen service; he moves on closing Guantanamo Bay and secret CIA prisons. This is a really clean break."

Begala thinks the most important question is just how long Obama has to turn things around before, in Imus's words, "everybody turns on him."

"People say they're going to be patient, but I don't know," Begala said. "Our idea in this culture now of a long-term commitment is watching all ten weeks of American Idol."

Following an uncomfortable moment when Begala called White House Chief-of-Staff Rahm Emmanuel his "best friend," Imus admitted that Dr. Jill Biden spilling the beans to Oprah about her husband's job options brought him great joy.

Said Imus, "We're just looking for somebody in the freak parade to do something we can comment on."

Julie Kanfer