On Tuesday night’s The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, First Lady Michelle Obama snuck in a stealth shot at former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney‘s singing skills. Asked by Leno what she thought of Gov. Romney’s recent rendition of America The Beautiful, the First Lady replied, with a laugh, “It’s a beautiful song,” adding that “it is America’s song, and it’s a song that’s mean to be sung by every American.”

On Tuesday night, First Lady Michelle Obama visited NBC’s Tonight Show, chatting with host Jay Leno about her “Let’s Move” health initiative.

She also shared that, for her birthday, her mom baked her a red velvet cake (it really is the best kind of cake, folks — the “secret” ingredient is vinegar) with the help of First Daughters Sasha and Malia.

Rick Perry parachuted himself into the 2012 Republican race as a frontrunner, but rather than taking the campaign season by storm, his need to consistently deliver lines without flubbing them has put him in a bit of a vulnerable position. In his new “campaign ad” for The Tonight Show, he takes a shot at himself by citing his now-legendary brain freeze over the three federal agencies he would shut down, and in making light of himself, Perry is at his most charming.

Meghan McCain sat down with Jay Leno on Friday’s Tonight Show and spoke candidly on the Republican candidates, comparing the process of picking a nominee to speed dating. McCain slammed Newt Gingrich‘s campaign as a “vanity project” and slighted him as “this week’s fling” for Republicans, lamenting how the process has turned into an “anybody but Romney” affair. “He seems to be rising — hot air balloons do that,” Leno snarked.

Bristol Palin‘s appearance on The Tonight Show started off with a bang, with Palin poking fun at host Jay Leno‘s signature feature — his chin — after he subtly asked her about her new, surgically enhanced visage. But it was Leno’s other guest, Don Rickles, who really got the party going, as Don Rickles is wont to do. A word of warning: Don’t invite this guy to your bachelorette party unless you’re prepared to do something regrettable involving an inflatable alligator.

Late last week, second quarter ratings for late night comedy programs were released, and one big ratings changeup has been getting lots of media attention. The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, despite being on a cable network, received more viewers within the 18-49 demographic in the second quarter than The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. Stewart’s program was watched by 1.295 million viewers in the demo, while Leno only received 1.292 million.

Chris Matthews appeared on The Tonight Show last night with and predictably revealed his admiration/adulation for President Barack Obama, particularly for the White House response to the disaster unfolding in Japan. He also brazenly shared his opinions on many other news items of the day, but was most vocal in his critique of Governor Mike Huckabee‘s recent comment that Obama grew up in Kenya learning about the Mau-Mau Revolution. Matthews did not demure in his critique, simply saying “it’s racist!”

Conan O’Brien is promoting a new documentary about his life that debuted at the SXSW Film Festival, titled “Conan O’Brien Can’t Stop.” Director Rodman Flanders explains the title refers to Conan’s inability to stop performing and not as some may have thought, his inability to keep talking about his separation from NBC.

The sudden and hard-to-justify fame that comes to those unique products of American pop culture know as “reality stars” is a fascinating phenomenon to follow, yet impossible to explain. Take for example the cast of Jersey Shore and Snooki‘s inexplicable inclusion on the NY Times bestseller list this week. Another example was last night’s appearance on The Tonight Show by Mike Sorrentino, aka “The Situation,” who shared with host Jay Leno his dreams of appearing in movies, and yes, one day winning an Oscar for his work. God bless America!

Former CNN host Larry King, who just last week promised on his final show not to go away, stayed true to his word appearing on Jay Leno‘s The Tonight Show last night and launching a new career as a stand-up comic. Leno introduced the crowd to the “bright young comedy stylings of Larry King” and King jumped up with microphone in hand and delivered humorous stories (note to comedy bookers: King doesn’t do jokes).

On CNN’s Reliable Sources, host Howard Kurtz laid out what the public perception of Jay Leno was during the late night debacle: a scheming bad guy who plotted to get rid of Conan O’brien in order to get back his old job.  But Bill Carter, author of The War for Late Night, said today that that’s not accurate at all.

Christine O’Donnell was a guest on Jay Leno‘s Tonight Show and the host thanked her early right away for “being a good sport” and “all the material.”

O’Donnell described how Karl Rove avoided talking to her recently, the type of men she’d like to date and what’s coming up in the future.

She may not be a witch, but she’s also not a U.S. Senator. So while Christine O’Donnell avoided most media outlets during her campaign, now that the race is over her options are more open.

Which means an appearance on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno tonight on NBC.

Meghan McCain was in a good mood last night on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno last night – her dad had won re-election, the GOP took the House.

But she also was ready to take some shots at Republicans like Christine O’Donnell and Bristol Palin.

Throughout all of the sturm and drang of the battle between Conan O’Brien, Jay Leno, and NBC at the beginning of this year, many kept repeating the same refrain, “God, Bill Carter’s gonna have some great material for his next book.” Carter, of course, wrote the seminal book about the first late night wars, The Late Shift. Sure enough, confirmation soon came that Carter would write a sequel, The War for Late Night, and Vanity Fair now has an excerpt online. It’s as tense and exciting as expected.

By now you likely know that Mediaite’s White House correspondent Tommy Christopher made news for live-tweeting his own heart attack, a rather unique decision he recently expanded upon for Mediaite. And his notoriety shot up another level tonight when none other than Jay Leno joked about his situation for a Tonight Show monologue.

While Chris Matthews and Keith Olbermann were pointing to new Gallup poll numbers to show that President Obama and the Dems totally aren’t in trouble in November, Bill O’Reilly was looking at late night comedy monologues to show that they totally are. O’Reilly was proposing the idea that there has been a turn as of late, with liberal comedians finally starting to make jokes about Barack Obama.

America’s Got Talent judge Piers Morgan was a guest on the Tonight Show last night, and Jay Leno waited until segment two to begin the questioning about whether he would take over for CNN’s Larry King.

While Morgan said he couldn’t “actually talk about that at the moment” it didn’t stop some form of conversation from happening – including who Morgan would want as a first guest.

The host of the top cable news show, Fox News Bill O’Reilly, was interviewed last night by the host of the top late night show, NBC’s Jay Leno.

The two-segment discussion saw some surprising takes from O’Reilly on Don’t Ask Don’t Tell and Lindsay Lohan – and an extremely harsh joke at exiting BP CEO Tony Hayward‘s expense.

The TBS-supported Emmy campaign by Conan O’Brien regarding his former show, NBC’s The Tonight Show, worked brilliantly: O’Brien’s version of the show got four nominations this morning.

NBC entered The Tonight Show with Jay Leno – which got zero nominations. This could get awkward when the Emmys air August 29 on, um, NBC.

Chris Matthews appeared on The Tonight Show last night with host Jay Leno and talked about the news and politics of the day in way that was fairly predictable. But things got interesting when fellw guest Chelsea Handler asked the animated Hardball host “Could you talk faster?” Matthews didn’t miss a beat responding, “My dear, you’re beautiful, but if you concentrate, you can keep up.”

In a green room chat after her appearance on The Tonight Show last night, Joy Behar and her HLN got some content as well.

And Leno didn’t hold back on admitting Conan O’Brien “got screwed” by NBC. But, according to Leno, so did he.

At least that is her requirement for him to appear on her HLN show. Behar weighed in on the Beck phenomenon during an appearance on Jay Leno last night…because really, is there a more surefire way to land yourself some morning after headlines than to hook your self to the Glenn Beck media train?

Karl Rove found a new venue to promote his book, Courage and Consequence, last night – The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.

The lighter venue led to mostly serious discussions, including about yesterday’s “bondage-themed nightclub” story, health care in general, and some very uncomfortable moments of Rove’s early life.

Remember how the storyline when Conan O’Brien hosted the Tonight Show was that he could win in the younger demographics but would lose in total viewers?

Well, after a first week back of big ratings and victories over CBS, Jay Leno and the new old Tonight Show lost to David Letterman in the demos Monday night.