"President Obama took the stage at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner Saturday night and said he was going to “speak off the cuff” — as two teleprompters loudly whirred into place.
“I’m Barack Obama,” he said. “Most of you covered me. All of you voted for me.”
"Such is the criticism of the annual soiree — that the president and the press corps who cover him are just a little too cozy — and this year’s dinner provided the usual mix of journalists, administration officials and Hollywood imports.
"But in addition to being an excuse for the wonk set to drink too much and Twitter too much (#nerdprom, anyone?), this year’s fiesta was eagerly anticipated as something of a coming out for President Obama, who skipped his first Gridiron Club dinner and sent Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. in his place.
"Though Mr. Biden earned rave reviews, Mr. Obama was the first president to skip the white-tie dinner in his first year in office since Grover Cleveland, and Washington was eager to see how he would fare Saturday night in the Hilton’s cavernous ballroom.
“He was so funny,” said CNBC’s Jim Cramer, as he made his way out of the dinner. “And Wanda Sykes! She gave us a ‘Curb Your Enthusiasm’ Wanda. Oh, it was so good.”
"It was also Ms. Sykes who provided one of the more charged lines of the evening, when she took on Rush Limbaugh, accusing him of “treason” for saying that “he hopes this administration fails.”
“I think maybe Rush Limbaugh was the 20th hijacker, but he was just strung out on OxyContin and missed his flight,” she said, to cheers and nervous groans. “Too much?”
"But then she continued anyway. “Rush Limbaugh. ‘I hope the country fails’? I hope his kidneys fail, how about that? He needs some more waterboarding, that’s what he needs.”
"Mr. Obama, for his part, offered a series of jokes — spearheaded by his adviser David Axelrod and his speechwriter Jon Favreau — with bipartisan punch lines.
"He talked about how Mother’s Day “is a tough holiday for Rahm Emanuel, because he’s not used to saying the word ‘day’ after ‘mother,’ ” and then turned his attention to Michael Steele, the Republican National Committee chairman.
“Michael Steele is in the house tonight,” the president said, “Or as he would say, ‘In the heezy.’ ”
"He mentioned Dick Cheney’s coming memoir, “tentatively titled, ‘How to Shoot Friends and Interrogate People.’ ”
"Mr. Obama did find a Republican with whom he had “a lot in common”: Representative John A. Boehner, the House minority leader with a perpetual tan.
“He is a person of color,” Mr. Obama explained. “Although not a color that appears in the natural world.”
"Mr. Obama finished his speech on a serious note, however, offering his thanks and support to the journalists who cover him, and acknowledging the struggling state of the industry. (Not surprisingly, this tribute to journalism earned him a standing ovation from the crowd of, well, journalists.)
"The White House Correspondents’ Association dinner has a long history as Washington’s annual nerd prom — a black-tie confab where Washington’s A list meets Hollywood’s B (and C) list. It started in 1920, and received a red-carpet ramp-up in 1987, when Michael Kelly, then a reporter for The Baltimore Sun, brought Oliver North’s document-shredding secretary, Fawn Hall, as his guest. The next year he brought Donna Rice, whose involvement with Gary Hart sank his campaign, and soon all of the Beltway’s news organizations were competing to get the hottest “get.”
"Which can lead to something of an unlikely crew. This year, there was Sean Smith, a spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security, escorting the redheaded actress Kate Walsh around the lower level of the hotel. (They met on the campaign trail.) There was Mr. Axelrod sipping his drink at the NBC reception, just feet away from Colin Firth and Jason Bateman. And there was Meghan McCain entering the Atlantic pre-party — complete with Warholesque portraits of Obama officials covering the walls — and turning right, while the actor Richard Belzer turned left and held court at the bar.
“The difference is palpable,” Mr. Belzer said, who attended the dinner once before during the Bush years. “It just seems more glamorous. Now it’s rock-star, Kennedy elegance.”
“Nothing wrong with being cool,” he added quickly.
"The Chicago Tribune columnist Clarence Page stood just inside the massive room, looking for his table before the dinner, and offered his own assessment on the giddy mood: “This is Christmas at Tysons Corner.” (Which is to say, we assume, cramped and crowded but with the promise of something exciting at the end.)
“With this president, they just want to be in the same room,” Mr. Page said, scanning the crowd. He caught sight of Susan E. Rice, the American ambassador to the United Nations, and flagged her down. “You are the most beautiful ambassador,” he gushed, then quickly added with a giggle, “Don’t tell Madeleine Albright.”
"Mr. Page needn’t have worried. The main buzz, as guests filed out to the various after parties, seemed to be about the president and Ms. Sykes, who offered a performance vaguely reminiscent of Stephen Colbert’s in 2006, when he mocked President Bush’s low approval ratings and compared him to the Hindenburg disaster.
"In addition to her Limbaugh line, Ms. Sykes earned loud laughs when she mentioned Gov. Sarah Palin, who had withdrawn from the dinner “at the last minute. You know, somebody should tell her, that’s not how you really practice abstinence.”
"That drew a few boos, as well (perhaps from the First Dude, who went as the guest of Fox News’s Greta Van Susteren). “Oh, shut up,” Ms. Sykes said, responding to the crowd. “You gonna be telling that one tomorrow.”
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