Sunday, May 10, 2009
Our president the jokester
It was an evening of black comedy. I drove in to Philly to see a couple of black comedians -- Hannibal Buris and Finesse Mitchell -- at Helium, and President Obama delivered his first stand-up routine at the White House Correspondents dinner. Obama hewed to the tradition of putatively self-deprecating and bipartisan humor:
Compare to George W. Bush's last performance (which includes clips from earlier dinners). What differences, if any, do you see?
One difference is the relationship with the press. The other, perhaps, is the change in the national memory between the beginning and end of a presidency.
3 Comments:
By 
The Conservative Wahoo, at
Sun May 10, 08:14:00 AM:
Obama--like Clinton--is someone with whom I have serious and deep political disagreements. But in terms of a guy who looks like he'd be fun to have a beer with? Both of them killed that scale...which is why both were elected President. Obama's smile and laughter as he delivered some of these zingers (Boehner and Steele, especially) was genuine and infectious.
By 
, at
Sun May 10, 02:34:00 PM:
Was anyone else on the program, other than Obama himself and Wanda Sykes? Did anyone hit on Obama, other than himself? Wanda said some pretty nasty things about Obama's political opponents -- I don't know that this was the right forum for it -- or are the White House corrspondents already completely co-opted by Obama.
By Counter Trey, at
Sun May 10, 11:06:00 PM:
Sorry CW, I didn't see it the same way. Bush clearly was self deprecating at each of these.
Il Duce, on the other hand, took some harsh jabs at his opponents and only one or two mild ones at himself. That kind of smugness will not remain infectious...if it ever was.
Another difference were the number of quasi celebreties like Kuchner who hung on Il Duce's every word.
