President Barack Obama said he was surprised when he learned about the bonuses paid to employees of American International Group Inc. after the troubled insurer had to be rescued with taxpayer funds and vowed to recoup the money.

“Stunned is the word,” Obama said last night in an interview on NBC’s “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.”

Obama for the fourth consecutive day addressed the furor over $165 million in bonuses paid by AIG after it received a total of $173 billion in federal bailout funds. He learned of the payments March 12, according to an administration timeline.

Obama said that while it was necessary to rescue the troubled insurance giant, “the question is, who in their right mind, when your company is going bust, decides we’re going to be paying a whole bunch of bonuses to people.” He vowed to try to get the money returned for taxpayers.

He again expressed confidence in Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, who has come under fire from some lawmakers in Congress for not blocking AIG from paying the bonuses.

Geithner, Obama said, is doing his job “with grace and good humor and he understands that he’s on the hot seat. But I actually think that he’s taking the right steps and we’re going to have the economy back on the move.”

Frustration in Congress

A vote last night in the U.S. House to impose a 90 percent tax on employee bonuses at the New York-based insurer and other companies that received taxpayer bailouts shows the “frustrations” of lawmakers and the public, he said.

“But I think the best way to handle this is to make sure you’ve closed the door before the horse gets out of the barn,” he told Leno.

The president said that, even with the economy in a recession and the financial system in a crisis, Americans “should have complete confidence in their banks.”

While most of the interview focused on the economy and the bailouts, Obama joked with Leno about life in the bubble of the presidency and how his family is adapting. Obama made one comment that prompted him to apologize afterward.

Leno asked Obama if the White House bowling alley had been replaced yet with a basketball court. Obama, whose bowling style exhibited during the presidential campaign became the butt of jokes, said that he had been practicing and recently bowled a game of 129.

“It was like Special Olympics, or something,” he said.

Apology for Remark

On the return trip to Washington, deputy press secretary Bill Burton told reporters that the remark “was in no way intended to disparage the Special Olympics.” The nonprofit organization serves about 200 million people with disabilities.

Special Olympics Chairman Timothy Shriver said that the president called him from Air Force One to offer an apology.

Obama said that he didn’t intend to “humiliate” or “embarrass” disabled individuals, Shriver said on ABC’s “Good Morning America” program today.

Obama said “he was ready to have some of our athletes over to the White House to bowl or to play basketball, or help him improve his score,” Shriver said. The president’s remarks should serve as “a teachable moment” to show that “words hurt, words do matter.”

Campaigning for Support

Obama’s appearance on the show came as he campaigns for public support for his $3.6 trillion budget and its plans for new spending and taxes to advance his agenda on energy, education and health care. It wrapped up a two-day swing through California. He’s also taping an interview tomorrow for CBS’s “60 Minutes” program, to be broadcast March 22, and is planning a primetime news conference March 24.

Leno, who makes his living joking about politicians, directed most of his barbs at side players during his opening monologue. He said he was going to have Vice President Joe Biden “come out and say a few words, but it’s only an hour show.” He noted Obama met earlier in the day with California’s Austrian- born governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger. “It was great to see the president reaching out to California’s non-English speaking community,” Leno said.

First President

While political candidates since at least John F. Kennedy have used the late-night talk show circuit to reach voters and show a more personal side, Obama is the first sitting president to be interviewed on the “Tonight Show,” according to NBC and historians.

Obama’s appearance on the “Tonight Show” is an evolutionary rather than revolutionary step in presidential communications, according to Stephen Hess, a presidential historian at George Washington University in the capital.

“Every president takes advantage of the technology they’re given,” Hess said. “It’s a fascinating event, because it blends all of these different trends: the trend of celebrity, the trend of technology, the trend of the permanent campaign.”

Surveys also show that increasing numbers of people keep up with current events through shows such as Leno’s, CBS’s “Late Show With David Letterman” and Comedy Central’s “Daily Show,” Hess said.

“So you go where the ducks are,” Hess said.

“The Tonight Show” is the most-watched late week-night program, according to Nielsen Co. data supplied by NBC.

For the first week of March, Leno attracted an average audience of 4.91 million viewers, compared with 3.82 million for Letterman’s program, NBC said. In the 18-to-49 age group that advertisers target, Leno attracted 1.93 million viewers, compared with Letterman’s 1.44 million.

Last night’s show attracted Leno’s biggest audience in more than four years, reaching about 11 percent of the 114.5 U.S. television households, NBC said today in a statement.

The late-night shows attract about one-fifth the audience of the most-watched prime-time television programs. Last week’s episodes of “American Idol” on News Corp.’s Fox network drew almost 26 million viewers, Nielsen data show.

Tonight was Obama’s third appearance on the NBC program. During the presidential campaign, he and Republican nominee John McCain, an Arizona senator, made stops on both Leno’s and Letterman’s programs.

“It shows politicians can laugh at themselves, and voters find that endearing,” said David Bushman, a television curator for the Paley Center for Media in New York.

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Tags: aig, American International Group, american international group inc, bailout, barack obama, employee bonuses, frustrations, furor, good humor, hot seat, insurance giant, insurer, international group inc, recession, some lawmakers, taxpayer funds, timothy geithner, tonight show with jay leno, treasury secretary

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