Sunday, April 29, 2012

Obama poking fun at himself... and the news


C-SPAN: President Obama at the 2012 White House Correspondents' Dinner
Just in case you missed the news stories about President Obama's piece at the White House Correspondents' Association dinner, here is the full speech.
There is a lot of "local" humor to give it a name — such as the references to celebs and journalists — that may not be familiar to readers from abroad.
There are also puns that one may miss if just listening to the speech. Like his mentioning that a year ago "we finally delivered justice to one of the world's most notorious individuals."
Obama's attendance at the same dinner a year ago coincided with the operation that ended with the killing of Osama bin Laden and much was made at the time of how the president had been able to be at that social event without giving nary a hint that such a commando raid was underway.
No name is given after Obama delivers the punch line but there in the video one can see, on the giant TV screens in the ballroom, the face of Donald Trump, who until a few days before the raid had been busy promoting the so-called birthers conspiracy —namely, that Obama may not be a citizen because he had till then provided no proof that he was born in Hawaii.
Just in case one would still miss it, Obama reinforces the joke, as he continues saying that being in the midst of a heated presidential election he is usually reminded by David Axelrod, his main adviser, that he should always take advantage of the opportunity to reintroduce himself to the people.
So, he says at about 3:30 into the clip: "My name is Barack Obama. My mother was born in Kansas. My father was born in Kenya. And I was born, of course, in Hawaii." Punctuated by an overdone fake wink.   
As for the event and the organizers, here's what they are, as described in the White House website: "The annual event, which has been held since 1920, honors the work of the journalists who report on the Administration and the dinner raises money that is used to grant scholarships to journalism students. The dinner is one of Washington, DC's, most anticipated social events of the year, and the
 President's speech, which pokes fun at himself and the coverage he has received from the reporters in attendance, is the evening's highlight."