Mark Halperin Really Enjoys Wearing Makeup

Imus was taken aback this morning when TIME Magazine's Mark Halperin appeared in person instead of on the phone. Which, it turns out, Imus would have preferred.

But Halperin had his reasons for coming into the Fox Business Network studio. "There's free makeup, free donuts, and a chance to show my Blackberry to Charles," he said.

Imus observed that Halperin self-importantly had his iPhone situated just next to him on the desk, "like something is going to happen while we're talking." Charles suggested Halperin put his iPhone to good use: get up, walk backstage, and call us from there.

Since Halperin wouldn't leave, Imus asked what his guest had on his mind when he woke up today. Halperin said he'd been pondering the fate of the Obama administration.

"The health care vote is today ...I think this is pretty big," he said. "He's got to get something passed, and get something passed that gives him momentum."

Halperin thinks the President needs to "close the year big," in order to govern to his full potential over the next three years. "Closing big" means not only getting health care passed, but also succeeding at December's climate change summit in Copenhagen.

The administration needs to close on both of those issues so that next year they can focus on the mighty task of job creation, Halperin said. He is not concerned about complaints from liberals that Obama has not delivered on Guantanamo Bay and the Iraq War.

"Their leash on him is long," said Halperin. "But he's always been kind of a mystery — is he a liberal, or is he more of a centrist?"

Imus chided Obama for concerning himself with critics at Fox News, saying he should worry more about what to do in Afghanistan than whether someone is being mean to him.

"I think like most human beings, including you, he has the capacity to worry about more than one thing at a time," said Halperin.

Obama's focus as Commander-in-Chief has impressed and surprised Halperin, who dismissed Imus's jab that the President has taken too long to decide on a strategy in Afghanistan.

"It's better to get it right than to do it quickly," said Halperin. Obama, he added, is likely to come down somewhere in between the send-more-troops-in crowd and the get-the-hell-out-of-there crowd.

Imus clearly had lost his focus, asking Halperin if he would keep his makeup on all day.

"I've taken to wearing it on the weekends, too," he said. "Even when I'm not doing television. I find it slimming."

-Julie Kanfer