The episode influenced political commentators, who took the 'let the politician be himself/politicians must remain true to themselves' episode lesson and applied it to politicians including: U.S. vice president Al Gore in 2000, Canadian health minister Allan Rock in 2001, Quebec premier Jean Charest in 2004, U.S. presidential candidate John Kerry in 2004, and U.S. president Barack Obama twice in 2009, and once in 2011. Commentators additionally applied the lesson to politicians including: New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg in 2009, Prime Minister of Australia Julia Gillard twice in 2010, which promoted other news reporters to publish their thoughts to that topic and make it a top ten discussion of the week in Australia, British labour leader Ed Miliband in 2011, and Scottish politician Johann Lamont in 2011.