Alternate headline: Even Late Night Comedy Shows Must Interview Obama Off the Record. Noel Sheppard picks up David Letterman’s belated realization that Barack Obama — one of his favorite guests — has misrepresented Mitt Romney’s position on GM and the auto bailout for months. Letterman tells MSNBCs Rachel Maddow that he finds it disappointing when a challenger proves to be more honest than an incumbent President:

DAVID LETTERMAN, HOST: Here’s what upset me last night, this playing fast and loose with facts. And the President Obama cites the op-ed piece that Romney wrote about Detroit, “Let them go bankrupt, let them go bankrupt,” and last night he brings it up again. “Oh, no, Governor, you said let them go bankrupt, blah blah blah, let them go bankrupt.” And Mitt said, “No, no, check the thing, check the thing, check the thing.” Now, I don’t care whether you’re Republican or Democrat, you want your president to be telling the truth; you want the contender to be lying. And so what we found out today or soon thereafter that, in fact, the President Obama was not telling the truth about what was excerpted from that op-ed piece. I felt discouraged. RACHEL MADDOW: Because the “Let Detroit go bankrupt” headline you feel like was inappropriate? LETTERMAN: Well, the fact the President is invoking it and swearing that he was right and that Romney was wrong and I thought, well, he’s the president of course he’s right. Well, it turned out no, he was taking liberties with that.

If you want your President to be telling the truth, then it’s time for a new President. And when a Democrat has lost David Letterman, and when Letterman tells people that the Republican was more honest than the Democrat, that is going to leave a big mark on Obama’s efforts to woo low-information voters, the very people Obama is trying to woo with his appearances on Entertainment Tonight, the late-night comedy shows, and MTV.

Who knows? Maybe Jay Leno will ask Obama a couple of tough questions tonight about his misrepresentations in the debates, and his personal attacks on Mitt Romney for the last several months. Pretty soon, the only safe interview for Obama will be on Sesame Street with Big Bird … and he’ll still insist on quote approval first.