"Its a little bit like American Idol, except everyone is Simon Cowell," he said.The presidents cultural allusions worked for him, Troy says, because they were authentic.His two terms played out like a running chronicle of the trends of our times: slow-jamming the news with Jimmy Fallon, reading mean tweets with Jimmy Kimmel, filling out his NCAA basketball bracket on ESPN, cruising with Jerry Seinfeld on "Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee.It wasnt just frivolity.Eric Dezenhall, a Washington crisis management consultant and former Reagan administration official, contends that Donald Trumps election "can be traced almost solely to the domination of the popular culture that Obama and Obama-ism had.".""Im appreciably cooler than I was two minutes ago," Obama declared after taking the wheel of a 1963 Corvette Stingray with Seinfeld in 2015.Michelle Obama matched the president on-trend moment for on-trend moment: She strapped on a seatbelt for "Carpool Karaoke" with James Corden, beat Ellen DeGeneres in a push-ups contest and rapped with a turnip. Nobody felt that she actually listened to their music.Past presidents had done late-night shows, but only as candidates, not after they took office.

The president turned up on "Between Two Ferns with Zach Galifianakis" to get millennials to sign up for his health care law. (Photo: AP) Washington: From his campaign fist bump to his theatrical mic drop at the last White House correspondents dinner, Barack Obama ruled as Americas pop culture president."But he spoke more to the heartland, whereas Obamas success was very coastal," says Dezenhall. And health care signups ticked upward.And, months before the end of his term, he delivered what could wholesale express nail anchors be his with-it farewell line as he ended his remarks at the correspondents dinner by embracing a gesture popularised by rappers and comedians.(It took six takes for Nixon to get the four-second quip right."There also was a kind of reflective coolness" that rubbed off on the president, said Tevi Troy, a former Bush administration official who wrote a book about presidents and pop culture. "Have you heard of the Affordable Care Act?"Some conservatives called that appearance undignified. US President Barack Obama. Kendrick Lamar.)George Schlatter, the shows creator, later said Nixon believed "appearing on Laugh-In is what got him elected, and I believe that.)And then there was his 2013 offhand reference to a "Jedi mind-meld. (Obama went with Lamar."I think its fair to say that I wouldnt be with you here today if I didnt have something to plug," Obama shot back.The president tossed a "Mad Men" reference into his 2014 State of the Union address calling out wage disparities between men and women and Twitter went wild." Obamas cultural identity was intertwined with a liberal agenda that was a turnoff to many voters."Obama caught flak for his Leno appearance, beneath the office, some said but he shrugged it off as just part of the needling that comes with the presidency.The same shtick didnt necessarily work for Hillary Clinton in her unsuccessful campaign to succeed him. Or Richard Nixons labored "sock it to me" soundbite on "Laugh-In" in September 1968."A lot of Trumps supporters said,

Im tired of hearing about this," says Dezenhall. Obama watched more TV growing than up any other president, he said.Think of Bill Clinton, in sunglasses, wailing "Heartbreak Hotel" on his sax on Arsenio Halls show in 1992."OK, lets get this out of the way, what did you come here to plug?" Galifianakis groused. But within days, it had snagged 18 million views, on par with Justin Bieber.In an increasingly fragmented media world, the Obamas turned niche pop culture platforms to serious ends.He paid a 2015 house call to comic Marc Marons garage in California to talk terrorism, racial politics and gun control on Marons "WTF" podcast. When candidate Obama and his wife shared an affectionate fist bump on stage during the presidential campaign, a Fox News anchor later referred to it as a possible "terrorist fist jab.The nation wasnt always sure what to make of this oh-so-hip president.There he was in Alaska, warning about the dangers of climate change on "Running Wild with Bear Grylls."Of course Trump, too, is in large part a product of pop culture, with decades of movie cameo credits as a billionaire businessman and a long run as the Richie-Rich "Apprentice" boss.When Clinton turned up with Katy Perry or other pop stars, Troy says,

"It seemed inauthentic."Even Obama had his stumbles and may have taken it too far at times."Obama out," he deadpanned, as he dropped his microphone and left the lectern.Obama's cultural identity was intertwined with a liberal agenda that was a turnoff to many voters.For all the fascination with Obamas pop culture finesse, there was a downside.The presidents melding of policy and pop culture started early, when he promoted his economic stimulus plan to Jay Leno (remember him?) on NBCs "Tonight Show" in 2009. His attempt to maximize the messages from his 2016 State of the Union address went pretty far afield when he found himself being questioned by YouTube personality "sWooZie" on the rapping skills of Drake vs." There she was on the "Tonight Show," pushing exercise by challenging Fallon to a sack race in the East Room." That was an inadvertent mashup of references to "Star Wars" and "Star Trek."The benefits of Obamas affinity for pop culture were clear:Hollywoods brightest stars stepped up to amplify his message and raise money for his causes. People "got sick and tired of hearing that Islam is a peace-loving religion and that theres nobody braver than Kaitlyn Jenner