Jake Tapper Tries to Incite People of New Mexico Against Imus

Jake Tapper’s interview time slot this morning coincided with Imus’s compulsive need to complain about everything, but fortunately Tapper, the White House Correspondent for ABC News, is a practical man.

“Can I help?” he asked Imus, who was whining about needing to see some doctors today. “Do you need a referral?”

Another person having a bad time lately is President Obama, who faced a rough crowd at a town hall meeting last week about the economy. To boot, Imus noted that Obama’s poll numbers are sliding in the wrong direction, and that he will travel to New Mexico today.

Confused, Tapper wondered why Imus would lump a visit to Albuquerque in as one of the negative things in the President’s life. Before Imus could answer, Tapper agreed that it has not been a good run for Obama.

“The latest Pew poll had Independent voters favoring Republicans over Democrats on a generic ballot by 13 points,” Tapper said. “It’s roughly the same margin Democrats had going into the last election cycle.”

Interestingly, three out of four key members of Obama’s economic team have either left or announced their intention to leave in the last few weeks. The latest is Larry Summers, who will return to teaching at Harvard in order to retain his tenure there, or something.

“It’s not completely unheard of to have all these staff changes,” Tapper said. “But there certainly are a lot of them.”

Back to the Albuquerque thing: Why would Tapper accuse Imus, who lives about half the year in New Mexico, of dissing Albuquerque? He warned his guest, “I have cancer, you know.”

Ignoring Imus’s plea for sympathy, Tapper wondered if a state founded in today’s political climate could ever be named New Mexico. “What a great question,” Imus said. “Maybe when you get your own show, you can ask questions like that.”

Tapper has not read Bob Woodward’s new book Obama’s Wars, which is the journalist’s first book on the President. “In the first Woodward book, it’s pretty standard the President comes off well,” Tapper said. “It’s the second one and the third one they need to worry about.”

Obama also needs to worry about his Chief-of-Staff Rahm Emanuel jumping ship soon to run for Mayor of Chicago, a rare political opportunity that he’s unlikely to pass up. “I think it’s probable he’ll run, and possible that we’ll know he’s running some time in the next couple of weeks,” Tapper said.

Tapper was flying commercial to Albuquerque today, and not on Air Force One, to cover the President’s trip. Feeling sorry for his guest, Imus said, “I hope you get some peanuts.”

Tapper may have had his share of nuts already this morning.

-Julie Kanfer