Time to Roast Obama.

Last Saturday night, the President took his wife out for dinner. I am sure they would have preferred a quiet evening but they were joined by members of Congress, the Administration, guests and the members of the White House Correspondents Association at the annual WHCA dinner.

This year’s host, Cecily Strong set off a number of barbs. She told President Obama: “Your hair is so white now it can talk back to the police.” She also remarked, “Seriously, the Washington Hilton is great. And I bet when the President walked in and saw all those bellhops, he thought, finally, some decent security.”

The President weighed in with self-mockery, as well as some good shots at his political opponents:

·      “My new policy is paying off. Look at my Cuba policy: the Castro brothers are here tonight. Amigos! Que pasa? What? It’s the Castros from Texas? Oh. Hi, Joaquin. Hi, Julian.”

·      “Six years into my presidency, people still say I’m arrogant, aloof, condescending. People are so dumb. No wonder I don’t meet with them.”

·      “Being President is never easy. I still have to fix the broken immigration system. Issue veto threats. Negotiate with Iran. All while finding time to pray five times a day.”

·      “At this point, my legacy is finally able to take shape. Economy is getting better. Nine in ten Americans now have health coverage. Today, thanks to Obamacare, you no longer have to worry about losing your insurance if you lose your job. You’re welcome, Senate Democrats.”

Nor could Mr Obama resist taking a shot at the probable Democratic nominee for 2016:

·      “I have one friend, just a few weeks ago, she was making millions of dollars a year. Now she’s living out of a van in Iowa.”

·      “As we know, Hillary’s private emails got her in trouble. Frankly, I thought it was going to be her private Instagram account.”

Every year, traditionally on the last Saturday in April, the WHCA hosts a dinner at the Washington Hilton to honor the President and Vice-President of the United States. This year was the ninety fifth anniversary of the dinner, although the first president to attend was Calvin Coolidge in 1924. Occasionally, annual dinners were cancelled or downsized due to deaths or political crises. The dinner was cancelled in 1930, due to the death of former president William Howard Taft, in 1942, following the United States' entry into World War II, and in 1951, over what President Truman called the "uncertainty of the world situation." The Korean War had begun.

For more than its first forty years, the dinner was ‘stag’ but in 1962, at the urging of journalist Helen Thomas, President John Kennedy refused to attend the event unless women were invited. The ban was dropped. And why not? WHCA membership was always open to women.

Until the early 1980s, entertainment usually comprised singing between courses. There would often be a homemade movie about the President and a post-dinner show with big-name performers like Gracie Fields, Frank Sinatra and Nat King Cole. Since 1983, the featured speaker has usually been a comedian, with the dinner taking on the form of a “roast” of the President and his administration.

The dinner has been criticized for its coziness between the White House press corps and the Administration. On the night, the press corps hobnobs with Administration officials, even those who are unpopular and are not regularly cooperative with the press. Recently, scrutiny by bloggers has contributed to added public focus on this friendliness.

After the 2007 dinner, New York Times columnist Frank Rich implied that The Times would not participate in future dinners. Rich said that the event is "a crystallization of the press's failures in the post-9/11 era" because it "illustrates how easily a propaganda-driven White House can enlist the Washington news media in its shows." It strikes me that Mr. Rich was being a bit of a kill-joy. The Washington press corps seems to have no difficulty in holding the feet of the White House occupant and his advisers to the fire.

In recent years, the dinners have drawn increasing public attention, and part of the guest list can be described as "Hollywood". The attention given to the guest list and entertainers seems to overshadow the purpose of the dinner, namely to "acknowledge award-winners, present scholarships, and give the press and the President an evening of friendly appreciation."

In 2000, outgoing President Bill Clinton mocked himself and the press in the short film President Clinton: The Final Days, which depicted him as a lonely man closing down a nearly deserted White House, riding a bicycle, and learning about the Internet with the help of actor Mike Maronna.

Arguably the most famous roast took place in 2006, when Steven Colbert, soon to be of The Jon Stewart Show fame, performed his satire of a right-wing cable television pundit. Several of Bush's aides and supporters walked out during Colbert's speech, and one former aide said that the President had "that look that he's ready to blow." That was also the night when the Bush look-alike, Steve Bridges, performed a Bush impersonation, which was more Bush than Bush.

My favourite WHCA dinner story took place in 1990. David Broder, the political editor of The Washington Post, hosted a table which included Bob Dole, the then Senate minority leader. The top table guests entered and three former Presidents walked in. Richard Nixon was flanked by Jimmy Carter and Gerald Ford. Dole nudged Broder, pointed and said, “Speak no evil, see no evil….evil!”

It seems to me that the dinner is a harmless bit of fun, allowing the politicians and press to let their hair down for one night. Where is the problem with that?