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Sunday, May 1, 2011

White House Correspondents Dinner


Revenge, they say, is a dish best served cold. But President Obama didn’t have to wait long to set out a big helping for Donald Trump at Saturday night’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner.
The real estate mogul and possible presidential contender, who attended as a guest of The Washington Post, was treated to some zingers by the commander in chief.
Like this: “I know that he’s taken some flak lately, but no one is happier, no one is prouder to put this birth certificate matter to rest than The Donald. And that’s because he can finally get back to focusing on the issues that matter – like, did we fake the moon landing? What really happened in Roswell? And where are Biggie and Tupac?
And this: “Just recently, in an episode of ‘Celebrity Apprentice’ at the steakhouse, the men’s cooking team cooking did not impress the judges from Omaha Steaks. And there was a lot of blame to go around. But you, Mr. Trump, recognized that the real problem was a lack of leadership. And so ultimately, you didn’t blame Lil Jon or Meatloaf. You fired Gary Busey. These are the kind of decisions that would keep me up at night. Well handled, sir. Well handled.”
For weeks Trump had fanned long-held conspiracy theories about Obama’s citizenship. Last week, the president relented and released the long-form version of his birth certificate. At the dinner, The Donald probably loved the attention. This correspondent couldn’t see Trump from her seat, but in post-dinner reruns on C-Span, which had a camera trained on Trump, he appeared unbothered by Obama’s jokes.

But when comedian Seth Meyers, the evening’s featured entertainer, tore into him, Trump sat stone-faced.
A sampling from the head writer of “Saturday Night Live:”
“Donald Trump has been saying that he will run for president as a Republican, which is surprising, since I just assumed he was running as a joke.”
“Donald Trump often appears on Fox, which is ironic, because a fox often appears on Donald Trump’s head.”
“If you’re at The Washington Post table with Trump and you can’t finish your entrée, don’t worry, the fox will eat it.”
Obama himself had a good laugh over the whole birth certificate thing. He began his remarks by announcing that he was prepared to go a step further, in case there were any lingering doubts about his American citizenship.
“Tonight, for the first time, I am releasing my official birth video,” he declared. On the video screens around the room, up popped the birth scene from “The Lion King.”
“I want to make clear to the Fox News table: That was a joke,” Obama said. “That was not my real birth video. That was a children’s cartoon. Call Disney if you don't believe me. They have the original long-form version.”
You’d almost think Obama released his long-form birth certificate last week just to give himself plenty of material for the correspondents’ dinner.