Can Ellen DeGeneres Give Hillary Clinton What She Needs Most?

“You can just be silly here,” an executive producer of the the Ellen DeGeneres Show said of the talk show before Hillary Clinton took a plush white seat as DeGeneres's guest on an outdoor stage set up at New York's Rockefeller Plaza. It was the Tuesday after Labor Day, the rare moment that New Yorkers actually welcome 90-degree heat for dread of putting away linen and pulling out autumnal tweed. Back to school for children, back to Capitol Hill after the summer recess for members of Congress, and, for politicians of a certain national stature or aspiration, back to the prime-time, weekday TV. Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren appeared Tuesday afternoon on The View, and former Florida Governor Jeb Bush was scheduled to join Stephen Colbert that night for his Late Show debut. And here was Clinton, the former secretary of state, in bright Yves-Klein blue, outside for her first talk-show appearance since announcing her candidacy, on the same day that the New York Times related she was trying to project more humor, more heart.

On Tuesday, Clinton spoke with a new kind of frank contrition in an ABC interview, apologizing for her use of a private server for her State Department e-mail. Later in the day, she chatted with DeGeneres about being a grandma, about her favorite plot line on Scandal (first lady Mellie Grant’s run for Senate), about equal rights and college affordability, about the Republican debate. She bopped her head to anthemic New York songs. She joked with the comedian Amy Schumer about ice skates. She swayed with the singer Pink. She took pictures with a five-year old “presidential expert.” She rolled her hands and did a dance resembling the nae nae with the DJ tWitch from Magic Mike XXL. In other words, she put in time in the service of being likable.