(Image Source: Hulu)

BY EVAN BUSH

Is that Wolf Blitzer in a Jay Leno suit? With Michele Bachmann on his show, some are saying the late night comedian served up more than just softballs for the candidate.

Here's the video from Hulu:

LENO: ‘Is that bad, to prevent cervical cancer?”
BACHMANN: ‘I think so.’

“LENO: ‘You didn’t want to move on the debt ceiling at all. You would’ve preferred we defaulted.”

BACHMANN:’No...’”

“LENO: ‘Well that whole pray the gay away thing, I don’t get that.’
BACHMANN: ‘When I heard that, I thought it was a mid-life crisis thing, you know -- pray away the gray.’”

Gawker notes Leno’s aggressive questioning was a change for the funny man, and suggests Bachmann must have inspired something special:

“You know how Jay Leno’s lips are always firmly planted on his guest’s behind, no matter who it is? … that changed on Friday night. How so? Two words: Michele Bachmann … for whatever reason, Leno chose that moment to start really questioning the people sitting there in front of him, waiting for his questions.”

The Guardian says Bachmann got more than she bargained for out of Leno and was verbally outmatched:

“If the Republican presidential contender was expecting a few jokes and some good PR, she didn’t get it. Instead, the late-night talkshow host asked pointed questions about Bachmann’s disputed objections to the HPV vaccine and gay marriage in an awkward encounter that showed Bachmann to be evasive under Leno’s probing, while her own attempts at jokes fell flat.”

In a blog titled “Jay Leno is a liberal hack, grills Bachmann (but softballed Clinton, Obama)”, a writer for Right Wing News says Leno went way too far.

“Watching Jay Leno right now because Michele Bachmann is his guest. The first segment is over and he absolutely grilled her. No jokes, nothing funny. Just put her right on the spot and started hitting her with vaccine statistics, getting into smallpox vaccines … This would be no big deal, except that Leno interviewing Obama or Clinton is 180 from what I saw tonight.”


But a blogger for the LA Times says late-night shows are so structured that it’s unlikely Bachmann wasn’t in on the script. Leno, the writer says, was cordial. And in the end, everyone got what they wanted out of the appearance:

“Bachmann got her national exposure with a cultural icon. Leno likely lived up to his bargain. That’s the only way he can get guests such as her to return. But he also made clear some expressed doubts about what the candidate was dishing out.”