Sunday morning television in Washington, DC, is for talking heads – before, at this time of year, the football comes on, which is for banging heads. If somebody is even modestly newsworthy, he or she might get on a couple of programmes. On Sunday, Barack Obama goes on five, probably a record, even if pre-recorded, and on Monday he is on David Letterman’s late-night CBS show, where gentle evisceration occasionally occurs.

The president’s calculation is that healthcare reform demands no less, following his vivid speech to Congress last week, and that he is his own best spokesman, which is true. Only Rupert Murdoch’s Fox network, where Obama is often portrayed as a commie/fascist/racist Kenyan, will not get the benefit of his persuasion, while the Spanish language Univision, serving close to 20 per cent of US residents, will – even if in English; which says something about the lie of the political land these days.