One of the first things Jimmy Fallon asked Democratic presidential frontrunner Hillary Clinton during her Tonight Show appearance on Wednesday was whether she had too much experience to run for president.
They both sort of laughed, because the question was set up by talking about Donald Trump and Ben Carson, the top two Republican presidential candidates. Trump is a wealthy businessman and former reality TV star. Carson is a neurosurgeon. Neither has any political experience.
“You could have the White House renamed the Trump House," Clinton joked. "You could have Dr. Carson doing surgery in the basement."
Clinton's response was funny (really!), but the question also showed just how much political conversation is centered on conservatives right now.
Trump was a huge presence during Clinton's interview. Fallon did a skit with her dressed as the Republican frontrunner, lobbing easy questions as well as doling out Trump-ish advice such as pick three things everyone loves and say you hate them.
Fallon asked Clinton how long she thought Trump would run. He asked her about Trump's hair. Even Clinton impersonated the businessman for a bit. Trump seemed as much a part of the interview as the former secretary of state was.
Clinton did manage a natural ease, taking the host's cues to poke fun at Trump. She even stayed cool when Fallon tugged her hair, a play on the running joke that Trump's tuft of flowing hair is a wig.
She capitalized on softball questions to explain her plan to lower student debt and why she's embroiled in a controversy over deleted emails that stem from her recent tenure as secretary of state. She talked a bit about her social media strategy and laughed off Fallon calling her a grandma. She went back and forth with the host about parenting tips (Fallon's oldest kid was off to preschool for the first time on Wednesday) and plugged what she says will be her defining issue as a candidate: raising American incomes.
In a way, the interview resembled a lot of what the campaign trail has been like in 2015: A lot of Republicans, a blip of Bernie Sanders, and Clinton batting away this email scandal while she seems to wait for her conservative challenger.