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Mike Lupien has an excellent article in today's Daily News talking about the tasteless jokes at the White House Correspondent's Dinner. But the tastelessness of the jokes isn't the real shocker about this.
In the past this dinner has always been a roast, i.e. an occasion where people make good-natured, self-deprecating jokes about the guest of honor (in this case Obama).
For example, from 2007:
Before Bush and Little spoke, CBS star David Letterman made a video appearance from his studio with a Top 10 list of taped vignettes showing some of the funniest Bush flubs of the last year.
From 2002:
President Bush gave reporters here a look Saturday at "what life is really like inside the Bush White House," showing off his collection of "actual, never-seen-before photos."
Bush and top members of his administration mingled with reporters and other Washington insiders at the annual White House Correspondents dinner.
The correspondents dinner, in its 88th year, has become an occasion for self-deprecating humor from presidents. Last year, Bush presented a slide show of his family accompanied by a joke-riddled speech about the 2000 presidential election recount.
What's really shocking isn't just the tastelessness of the jokes - it's that Obama used these jokes and this platform to attack his political opponents:
Obama Likes Wanda Sykes Joke About Rush Limbaugh — ‘I Hope His Kidneys Fail’
Wanda Sykes Makes Fun Of Absent Sarah Palin With Abstinence Joke
Obama Mocks GOP Chair Michael Steele’s Use Of ‘Street Slang’
Far from being a uniter, the divisive Obama misuses the power of his office to bully all those who oppose him.
#2Good question. As Obama made some of the same kinds of jokes (per the link in the post), it appears to be clear that the staff did approve of this material, and likely communicated this approval to guest speakers.
Good observation, and glad you pointed it out. Sykes did seem more especially crass - but do you think it was coordinated with the Staff?