Those on the right are no longer the only ones finding Obama humor.  Late night comedians are now making more jokes about President Obama than they did candidate Obama, but he has yet to get the full out Bush treatment and probably never will.  As this David Letterman joke shows, he’s still their guy: “How about President Barack Obama's first primetime press conference last night? He was cogent, eloquent, and in complete command of the issues. I'm thinking to myself, what the hell am I supposed to do with that?”

Maybe comedians have had so much trouble laughing at Obama because he has had a bit of trouble laughing at himself.  In August, J. Peter Freire wrote of candidate Obama’s humor, “Obama is not a threat to the Republic because of his radical politics. Rather, his humor is the more clear and present danger. He's as funny as a laser guided toothache.  The problem isn't that Obama attempts jokes now and again that don't come off. The problem is that his humor is completely chilly. His repertoire is an awkward collection of self-conscious half jokes. And whenever he thinks on his feet to come up with a quick retort, the results are decidedly sub-sub-par…Generally speaking, there are two themes for Obama ‘jokes’: ‘I'm Great,’ and ‘I'm Only Pretty Great.’”

After spending the first two months of his presidency forecasting doom and gloom, President Obama has been yukking it up lately.  As the first sitting president ever to appear on the Tonight show with Jay Leno, he came up with this gem when Leno asked about the White House bowling alley.  “I have been practicing… I bowled a 129.”  The audience laughed and Leno replied “that’s very good, Mr. President.”  Then Obama added his own little punch line saying, “It’s like - it was like Special Olympics, or something.”   Unfortunately when he decided to go the self-deprecating humor route, which is generally the most effective, the result was to unwittingly make a joke about people with disabilities.

This weekend on 60 Minutes Steve Kroft asked Obama if he was “punch drunk” because he seemed to literally be laughing out loud about the troubles the country is facing.

“You're sitting here. And you're— you are laughing. You are laughing about some of these problems. Are people going to look at this and say, ‘I mean, he's sitting there just making jokes about money—’ How do you deal with— I mean: explain. . .” Kroft asked him, “Are you punch-drunk?”

Laughing, Obama replied, “No, no. There's gotta be a little gallows humor to get you through the day.”

Ain’t that the truth?  I know exactly how he feels.  Ever since the election I’ve needed gallows humor to get me through the day, too.