Sunday, May 1, 2011

Give As Good As He Gets

At the White House Correspondents Dinner last night, the President (and his writers) took Donald Trump and the GOP birthers to task with some pretty scathing humor.




Saturday Night Live's Seth Meyers was even more caustic following the President, and between the two of them Donald Trump was looking like he wanted to fire everybody in the room.  Out of a cannon.  Into a brick wall.



Best WHCD since Colbert's now famous performance in 2006, surely.  You know the wit was sharp enough to draw blood because the usual suspects are howling in pain this morning, calling Obama "boorish" and "classless" while it was a "victory" for Trump.

Having said that, the rest of the night was the Village patting itself on the back for being the best people ever and mixing in awe with the people they cover and the celebritology they practice.  Keep in mind the President was performing jokes for them, like they were a special interest constituency.  In too many ways they are.  The self-mocking #nerdprom Twitter tag has ironically turned into the cool kids praising themselves for a night, and not letting anyone forget how much power they have in American politics and increasingly in society.  That shark was jumped years ago.

It's all fun and games until America's fourth estate breaks out the steno pads...and as Yellow Dog says, "That's an insult to stenographers, a noble profession by comparison."

[UPDATESteve M. lets Gateway Pundit have it with both barrels on the "boorish" Obama:

Look, Jim, I know you righties do surprisingly well in this country with phony moralizing and faux righteous indignation. I know there's an unsettlingly large audience willing to nod in agreement when you complain about awful liberal meanies who aren't sufficiently nice to delicate flowers such as Sarah Palin and BP.

But Donald Trump?

No, Jim -- you look ridiculous trying to argue that a few well-placed zingers were an unfair attack directed at the biggest lout on the planet. Whose tender, bruised feelings are you going to defend next? Fred Phelps? Bobby Knight?

They can dish it out, but good lord, they can't take it.

[UPDATE 2]  Instatwit says Obama's a "sucker" for addressing Trump and fell into his dastardly trap...and then complains the mean ol' "sycophants" in the Village helped him gang up on poor Donald.   Yeah, I said that it was a mistake to give Trump credibility by releasing the birth certificate, but Obama cleaned that mess up nicely when he cleaned Trump's clock last night too. Point 1 in that article still stands -- it's about race and always has been -- but Obama has resolved the other 3 points I made quite nicely, and once again he has surprised me with his political jujitsu skills. He did what he needed to do: make Trump look like a crackpot buffoon in front of the entire Village (and the country to boot). One has to wonder if releasing the certificate was specifically bait for Trump. Given last night's events, I have to admit I was wrong about thinking that Obama releasing the certificate was a mistake. I'm glad to do so.

At this point, anything Trump says is sour grapes, and that goes doubly so for the jesters defending him.

[UPDATE 3] If Trump's reaction at the dinner and this evening on CNN are any evidence, then The Donald just proved in the last 24 hours that he couldn't take one percent of the crap thrown at Obama just this month, let alone so far in his term as President.

Anyone this thin-skinned is doomed in politics. But by all means, let Trump run.

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