Obama Skips Self-Deprecation, Lashes Out at Republicans in Vicious WHCA Dinner Monologue (DP: I only include this so readers who have no use for anything O-related can read the "rest of the story")

Obama Skips Self-Deprecation, Lashes Out at Republicans in Vicious WHCA Dinner Monologue

 

It takes a big man to make fun of himself, to take his failures, hold them up for everyone to see, and say, as Chandler Bing might: "Could I BE any more ridiculous?"
So when the president of the United States -- the most powerful man in the world, used to always getting his way, always being the smartest guy in the room, and always the one who gets the last word -- does it, we take note. It's a lesson in self-deprecation all Americans can learn from; Hey, the president mocks himself, so maybe I should just lighten up a little bit on myself, too.
Once a year, at the White House Correspondents' Association dinner, the president drops in to deliver a short comedy bit heavy on self deprecation. President Reagan was a master, goofing on himself as a slow-witted Hollywood rube; George H.W. Bush stepped out of his stiff patrician bearing to hit himself with a few zingers; Bill Clinton singed himself badly after his affair with a White House intern ("How was your week?").
And George W. Bush was, frankly, a master. Derided like Reagan, a slow witted rube, but this time from Texas, Bush once brought an impersonator on stage to mock him nonstop, for everything from his marble-mouthed delivery to his low approval rating. Mastery.
But President Obama each year proves he just isn't man enough to point his super-intellectual humor at himself. Sure, he almost always delivers a burn or two at himself, but he always goes on a scorched-earth campaign after that, viciously ripping any and all critics who have taken him on.
Saturday night was no different.
"It is great to be back. What a year, huh? I usually start these dinners with a few self-deprecating jokes. After my stellar 2013, what can I possibly talk about?" he said right at the top of his 20-minute routine.
He was, of course, going to mock the dismal rollout of Obamacare. But in his very first joke, he did so not by targeting himself, but by going after 2012 GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney.
"At one point, things got so bad, the 47 percent called Mitt Romney to apologize," he said to applause and laughter from the heavily liberal crowd. He made two other jokes, both weak, about the rollout, and ... done. "Rather than dwell on the past, I would like to pivot to this dinner," he said. End of self deprecation.
But he would go on to eviscerate his foes, bring up Kenya and "birthers" not once but twice, delight in charging Republicans with racism (which also filled a lengthy serious passage at the end of his comedy bit), target two private citizens, the Koch brothers, and muse about "what did we do to piss off Chris Christie so bad?" (Classy.)
He seemed positively obsessed with the Republicans who are going to vie for his job. Like this line, talking about the wonders of snowboarding in the Winter Olympics : "We haven’t seen somebody pull a 180 that fast since Rand Paul disinvited that disgruntled rancher from this dinner."
"As a general rule, things don’t end well if the sentence starts, 'Let me tell you something I know about the negro.' You don’t really need to hear the rest of it. Just a tip for you. Don't start your sentence that way," he said to laughter, apparently seeking to connect Paul with embattled Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy.
He targeted Sen. Ted Cruz too: "But I have not given up the idea of working with Congress. In fact, two weeks ago, Senator Ted Cruz and I, we got a bill done together and I have to say the signing ceremony was something special. We got a picture of it I think." Cut to Obama signing a bill at his desk, a disgruntled Cruz behind him, a hideous Devil with horns on the other side, a sign reading "HELL" covered with snow and ice.
And he took aim at Texas Gov. Rick Perry: Obama said Perry had followed a move by Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel and named a school after the president. Cut to a picture of a school sign: "Raging Socialist High School, 'Home of the Fighting Chomskys,' Bake Sale Tuesday, All Proceeds to Be Divided Equally."
Throughout the monologue, the 2,500 people in the Washington Hilton howled their approval at the over-the-top attacks. Later, when comedian Joal McHale made a Nancy Pelosi joke, there were only groans.
But Obama knows that the highly partisan crowd at the annual event will eat up his vindictive diatribe, and each year, it does. So every year, Obama makes it all just a bit more vicious. Still, that seems to be just the problem: A man who can't laugh at himself is a man devoid of humor, and nearly always, bitter and petty.

http://www.truthrevolt.org/news/obama-skips-self-deprecation-lashes-out-republicans-vicious-whca-dinner-monologue