Isn’t it about time to abolish the White House correspondents’ dinner? The president’s skit (in tandem with Bush impressionist Steve Bridges) was actually funny. But the main speaker, Stephen Colbert, of Comedy Central’s popular pretend-news show, presented an unfunny attack on the president that left the First Family unsmiling.
Editor and Publisher had a catalogue of Colbert’s jokes. Hot Air explains why Colbert probably had to be unfunny:
In Colbert’s defense, he might not have been playing for laughs. The dissident posture is very important to our friends on the left; if SC had kept things light and wasted his opportunity to speak ‘truth’ to power, they’d have crucified him for it. As it is, the moonbats will be building statues of him tomorrow. To paraphrase another delusional comedian who wasn’t as funny as he thought he was, better to be Kos for a night than a schmuck for a lifetime.
The dinner is an anachronism. It hails from the days when it provided White House officials and the press that covers them a chance to mingle in a convivial, non-work atmosphere. So much for that. Gone are the days when Nancy Reagan could (to some extent) disarm the press by putting on a self-deprecating performance of “Second Hand Rose.”
Why not end the dinner and let the die-hard party animals go straight to the Bloomberg after-party, where this year they got to rub elbows with the likes of Joe Wilson and his wife Valerie Plame (now that she’s no longer covert, she can hit the party-circuit the “Style’ section wonders who’ll play her in the movie, please, don’t make me sick).
Captain Ed had a run-down of the dinner with comments from readers.