After yet another week of redundancies, corporate scandals, and presidential gaffes, what did the American people really need on Tuesday night?

Was it, A) An episode of American Idol? Or B) For American Idol to be cancelled so that President Barack Obama could - for the third time in seven days - address the nation, this time while trying to avoid giggling, insulting participants in the Special Olympics or getting his teleprompted remarks mixed up with those of the Irish Prime Minister?

For Mr Obama the answer was of course B). Whatever the justifications for Mr Obama's third-time lucky attempt to charm and soothe the US electorate, it's getting hard to avoid the conclusion that the Leader of the Free World simply has an obsessive need to be on television.

Whether it's the excruciating amateur diplomacy of his videotape to Iran, or his status-inappropriate bragging about the perks of the presidency on the Jay Leno show (“I personally think it's [flying on Air Force One] pretty cool,” he gushed, “especially because they give you the jacket with the seal on it”), it's clear that even the once Obama-infatuated press is beginning to grow impatient with the apparent constant need for media validation by the Narcissist-in-Chief.

After the fawning of Leno, who declared his interview with Obama to be “one of the best nights of my life”, the media honeymoon finally descended into a marital dispute on Sunday, when the 60 Minutes interviewer Steve Kroft - baffled by the President's giggly demeanour during questioning about a bailout for America's ailing carmakers - asked him: “Are you punch drunk?”

Mr Obama replied (still laughing): “No, no. There's gotta be a little gallows humour to get you through the day.”

Gallows humour is all very well. Just not when you're probably the only man in the world who can save us from a fast-approaching apocalypse.

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