Obama gets last laugh at Washington's annual correspondents' dinner
updated 11:19 AM EDT, Sun May 4, 2014
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STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- Joel McHale makes off-color Kardashian joke
- Obama make fun of Boehner's tan, calls orange "the new black"
- Former HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius made an appearance
- The White House Correspondents' Dinner is known in Washington circles as "nerd prom"
Remarks that would have otherwise put him in hot water drew applause at the annual White House Correspondents' Association dinner
from an audience comprising some of the most famous faces in politics,
entertainment and sports. The dinner is known in Washington circles as
"nerd prom."
"Of course, we rolled out HealthCare.gov," Obama said of his tough year in 2013. "That could have gone better."
"In 2008, my slogan was 'Yes we can.' In 2013, my slogan was control-alt-delete," Obama said.
A poster for Walt
Disney's animated hit "Frozen" flashed onto the large video screens in
the ballroom, to which the president quipped that the launch of the
online enrollment portal of Obamacare had been turned into one of the
year's biggest movies.
After tickling funny bones with 20 minutes worth of jokes, Obama returned to the troubled rollout.
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The president said he'd
prepared a separate, short video thanking the White House
Correspondents' Association for all their hard work as the organization
celebrated its centennial anniversary in 2014.
When the video choked and froze, Obama called out for help. "Does anybody know how to fix this?"
Former Health and Human
Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, who was bitterly criticized over
the HealthCare.gov botch, rushed up to join Obama onstage.
"I got this. I see it
all the time," Sebelius said, as she appeared to set a small laptop down
on the podium. Sebelius punched in a few keystrokes in dramatic
fashion, and Obama's video began to play as originally intended.
Comedian and actor Joel
McHale, who spoke after Obama as the evening's entertainment, also
targeted the once-troubled Obamacare site.
"The launch of
HealthCare.gov was a disaster. It was so bad," McHale said, speaking
directly to the President. "I don't even have an analogy because the
website is now the thing people use to describe other bad things.
"They say things like, 'I shouldn't have eaten that sushi, because I was up all night HealthCare.gov-ing.'"
The president and McHale
also used fodder from current headlines for many of their best moments
of the night. Here are some of the highlights.
Christie's bridge troubles
After taking a jab at
drawn out legislative battles with Washington lawmaker Ted Cruz, Obama
joked that "gridlock has gotten so bad in this town, you have to wonder:
What'd we do to piss off Chris Christie so bad?"
"Finally, a politician
who is willing to stand up to America's commuters," McHale said of
Christie, who chuckled along in the audience.
Shirtless Putin
Obama sought to turn
recent conservative criticism of his foreign policy on its head by
pointing out past compliments Putin has received from Pat Buchanan and
Rudy Giuliani. In a dig at conservative pundits, Obama said, "Mike
Huckabee and Sean Hannity keep talking about Putin's bare chest -- which
is kind of weird. Look it up. They talk about it a lot."
McHale used the crisis
in Ukraine to give Obama some foreign policy advice. "You have to show a
guy like that you're just as crazy as he is. He invades Crimea, you
invade Cancun," the comedian told the President.
Dousing the news media
Both men used the
occasion to declare open season on the media, including CNN and its
recent extensive coverage of missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370.
Obama told the audience
he was a little jet-lagged from his recent trip to Asia which included a
stop in Malaysia. "The lengths we have to go to, to get CNN coverage
these days," the President said, adding, "I think they're still
searching for their table."
McHale was no kinder.
After remarking that the White House Correspondents' Association
celebrates its 100th anniversary this year, McHale joked, "100 years
ago, CNN was only searching for the Wright brothers' plane."
Obama also took a shot at MSNBC's ratings in the large, full ballroom.
"MSNBC is here. They're a little overwhelmed. They've never seen an audience this big before."
As for Fox News, the
President joked that the cable outlet was a front for the Koch brothers,
a pair of billionaire industrialists known for their monetary
contributions to conservative groups and causes.
"I'm just kidding,"
Obama added, "Let's face it, Fox. You'll miss me when I'm gone. It'll be
harder to convince the American people that Hillary was born in Kenya."
Racial tightrope walk
Obama played on skin
color while taking a stab at House Speaker John Boehner, who has
antagonized Obama on many issues in the last few years and who has his
own host of problems with the conservative members of the House
Republican Caucus.
"These days the House
Republicans actually give John Boehner a harder time than they give me
-- which means orange really is the new black," Obama said making a
simultaneous reference to the popular Netflix series and to Boehner's
legendary tan.
McHale walked the
tightrope on race in a quip that is apt to draw some criticism when the
sun comes up Sunday. The comedian is the host of "The Soup" on the E!
Entertainment channel.
"E! is also home to the
Kardashians, who believe it or not, are Republicans," McHale said, "And I
know that because they're always trying to screw black people."
The joke seemed to draw more smarting moans from the audience than laughs.
Some serious stuff
Although the night is
typically a light-hearted affair full of jokes, food, and posing for
photos, discussion of serious news intruded on the red carpet.
News legend Barbara
Walters spoke to CNN about her exclusive interview with V. Stiviano, the
woman at the center of the racial scandal that has embroiled L.A.
Clippers owner Donald Sterling.
"I think she wanted to
do it," Walters told CNN when asked how she landed a sit-down with
Stiviano, "I think she wanted to be heard. I think she feels there have
been a lot of bad things said about her and this was her chance to show
that she was intelligent."
The annual event, which
has attracted a substantial Hollywood contingent since Bill Clinton was
President in the early 1990s, is taking place this year at a time when
politically themed shows -- ABC's "Scandal," HBO's "Veep" and Netflix's
"House of Cards" -- are prevalent in popular culture.
CNN Political Commentator Ben Ferguson summed up how the annual event seemed to upend pop culture's normal pecking order.
"This is the only place
where Wolf Blitzer can actually be the hot ticket for a Hollywood star. .
. This is like revenge of every guy who ever went and studied hard in
college," Ferguson said. "In what world does this happen?"
As to whether
partisanship gets stirred up, S.E. Cupp of CNN's "Crossfire" said,
"Actually, tonight we've decided to put politics aside, laugh at our own
expense, rib each other, and just have a good night."
"That's what this is all
about," CNN Political Analyst John Avlon said of the rare truce between
the hosts on the left and the right of program. "There's so much humor
in politics but you wouldn't know it because people don't laugh at it,"
he said, "so it's a good night for that."
"This is Hollywood for ugly people," Avlon added, using a familiar description Washingtonians often use to describe their city.
Also spotted on the red
carpet by CNN before the dinner began: "Scandal's" Tony Goldwyn, Scott
Foley, Joe Morton, Bellamy Young and Dan Bucatinsky; Sens. Charles
Schumer, D-New York, and John McCain, R-Arizona; Attorney General Eric
Holder; Cynthia Nixon; Patrick Stewart; Kareem Abdul-Jabbar; Washington
"fixer" Judy Smith; Tim Tebow; Frida Pinto; IMF Managing Director
Christine Lagarde; Katie Couric; Richard Marx and the Winklevoss twins.
Also in attendance were CNN's Jim Acosta, Michelle Kosinski, Dana Bash
and Brianna Keilar.
The annual event is a
fundraiser for "scholarships for aspiring journalists and awards
recognizing excellence in the (journalism) profession," according to the website of the White House Correspondents' Association, the organization that sponsors the dinner.
The WHCA "works to
maintain independent news media coverage of the president, advocating
for access, handling logistics for pools of reporters who stay close to
the president and those who travel with him, and providing scholarships
to journalism students," the website says. The annual dinner began in
1920.
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http://www.cnn.com/2014/05/03/politics/washington-correspondents-dinner/-
end quote from:
Obama gets last laugh at Washington's annual correspondents' dinner
CNN--
... applause at the annual White House Correspondents' Association dinner from ... onto the large video screens in the ballroom, to which the president ... work as the organization celebrated its centennial anniversary in 2014.
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