Cory Booker Says He and President Obama Are Cool After Disagreement

Liberal hero Cory Booker was a seemingly teflon Democrat star after a few years of being Newark’s resident superhero and celebrity mayor.

In addition to being young and handsome, Cory Booker is a social media notable, even reaching out and helping stranded Newark residents on Twitter when a heavy snowfall left some without diapers. But Booker’s most shining moment was probably when he ran into a burning building to save a Newark resident trapped by the conflagration.

It even kicked off a Cory Booker meme on the internet, not too dissimilar from the Chuck Norris one, known as “Cory Booker stories,” spinning fantastical tales of the Newark mayor’s badassery. Booker also in the past had a running, good-natured “feud” with talk show host Conan O’Brian after the latter joked that a Newark health initiative Booker spearheaded included a “bus ticket out of Newark.”

After O’Brien was banned from Newark Liberty, the pair made up — but Cory Booker had a far more high-profile dustup when he went way off-message and appeared to side with Mitt Romney instead of Barack Obama on the issue of Romney’s controversial company Bain Capital, and the effects of such behavior on the American economy.

The Cory Booker/Obama disagreement lasted a few days, and Republicans ran with the story — a situation where Booker expressed immediate dissatisfaction, but the damage was done. However, Booker says that he and Obama have had a chance to shake their sillies out, and last night the Newark mayor told Jay Leno:

“That’s the shame about the kind of politics we’re in. People often miss the essence of a man. We have a president, despite whether you’re on the right or on the left, he is a good person. He was the first person to come out and say, ‘Hey, you’re still my friend.’ “

Later, Leno asked Cory Booker if he’d run for governor in the event Chris Christie was selected as Mitt Romney’s running mate, and Booker dodged the question.