Letterman's 'Late Show' Welcomes President Obama

Making his second visit to the Ed Sullivan Theater since taking office and seventh overall, US President Barack Obama taped tonight's appearance on CBS' The Late Show with David Letterman this afternoon and broached subjects including Clint Eastwood and his chair, the Mitt Romney fundraiser videos, and the violence resulting from the anti-Islamic movie The Innocence Of Muslims.

After joking around about Obama never seeing Letterman naked—"We're going to keep it that way," responded the President—the topic of the Romney videos that were leaked to the media came up. Dismissing the divisive comments of his challenger, Obama stated that the president represents the entire country and must "work for everybody," not just the half that voted for him. Rebuking Romney's characterization of 47% of the electorate, Obama credited the American people for working through the "Great Recession" and noted that in all of his travels across the country, he had never met anyone who didn't believe in the American dream.

When Letterman asked about the recent violence in Libya, Obama promised to bring Ambassador Christopher Stevens' murderers to justice and strengthen security at American embassies around the world. While he did criticize the offending homemade film that inflamed tensions in the Middle East, the President clearly pointed out that there was no excuse for the mayhem and carnage that occurred.

Speaking about the Muslim world, Obama asserted, "In this part of the region, as they emerge, into a new form of government, part of what they're going to have to do is to recognize that democracy is not just casting a ballot, it's respecting freedom of speech and tolerating people with different points of view, and it means that you've got to make sure that you never have any excuses for the kind of violence against innocents we saw last week, and that's a message that I've sent very clearly to the leaders of various countries, and we expect their full cooperation, because that's the only way the international order works."

The Late Show airs on CBS at 11:35 pm. By the time you read this, the interview should be over. Did you watch?