President Obama's latest video promoting the upcoming Democratic National Convention suggests that the president is testing out pandering to the all-important pothead vote. Even after watching how Clint Eastwood's on-stage meltdown distracted from Mitt Romney's big night at the Republican National Convention, the president seems unafraid in shoring up some Hollywood buzz for the DNC. The video—released Monday—announces the celebrity guest-host of convention coverage by depicting the president making an appeal with a personal phone call. “Hey this is Barack. Listen, I need to know if you’re on board.”Cue inspirational, moment-building music.“Ok good. Because I’m counting on you. Everybody is. We have to get this right, so there’s a lot at stake here. Just remember I’m trusting you on this - I’ll see you there.”Now this is no 3 a.m. phone call from Hillary Clinton. Change scenes to find actor Kal Penn hanging up his phone while sitting on a couch next to John Cho, his co-star in the cult stoner classic "Harold & Kumar" films. Next to them lay the remains of a pothead's munchy paradise - half-eaten pizza, chips, and liters of soda.
“Who’s that? Sounded intense,” Cho asks.“The president.”“Sweet.”
Now compare the image Penn and Cho pointing and laughing at cartoon bells and whistles on their television to that of 82-year-old Eastwood ranting at an empty chair to get a sense of what type of crowds each candidate is courting.