The D.C. Dog and Pony Show

The annual White House Correspondents' Association dinner took place Saturday night (4/25) in Washington.  Rolling Stone magazine calls the tradition “bizarre”.  Okay, but that’s not going far enough.  To me, it’s just more grab ass between politicians and journalists, comedians and entertainers.  It’s another “look at me” event in a culture already over-bloated with “look at me” activities.  Defenders might say that it’s a chance to see our elected officials in a different capacity.  It’s just a little night of fun, a soft core roast if you will.  I say its many criticisms are justified.  This is another indication of the administration blending, too comfortably, with the White House press corps and Hollywood.

Past hosts have included Stephen Colbert (2006), Craig Ferguson (2008), Jay Leno (2010) and Conan O’Brien (2013).  These are late night talk show hosts that are safe for TV.  They’re not going to go too far.  They might deliver a glancing blow on something of substance, but then it’s quickly on to the next quip.  They might, on occasion, try to be a little edgy, but they’re definitely not going to go in with too sharp of a blade.  This year’s host was Cecily Strong of SNL.  She had zingers on the handling of ISIS, the climate change debate and police shootings, but that’s as far as it went.  Does a completely dysfunctional political system that moves at a snail’s pace in this fast-paced world deserve a night of zingers?

Another bit that got attention was President Obama using Keegan-Michael Key as his “anger translator”.  I agree with the guys from KRNA’s “Free Beer & Hot Wings Morning Show”… wouldn’t it be refreshing, for once,  to actually hear this kind of straight talk and frustration in our diseased national politics?  They should've let George Carlin do one of these before he died.

NSFW... George swears!