“You would’ve loved him,” Meyers said, turning to the president and then remarking how Obama’s youthfulness and vigor are on the wane. In 2008, he looked like “the guy from the Old Spice commercial,” Meyers said, and now he looks like “Louis Gossett Sr.”
This is the type of event where all is forgiven — or at least temporarily forgotten — for the duration of dinner.
Good humor was as ubiquitous as dinner rolls. House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio), while observing an intense conversation between Trump and Newt Gingrich before dinner: “Crazy, and crazier.”
Every year the dinner, a tradition dating to 1920, makes commentators squirm over the cozy tableau of journalists scarfing petite filet and Montrachet cheese with the very people they cover — temporarily ignoring the business of the people, who are a bit preoccupied at present with the buzzkill of 8.8 percent unemployment, those tornadoes that shredded the South and the deadly revolts that are roiling the Middle East and North Africa.
Obama closed his speech on a serious note by reminding the crowd of the damage in the South, the unrest in the Middle East and the sacrifice of the nation’s armed forces — and of journalists who run to the front lines.
“We’ve seen daring men and women risk their lives for the simple idea that no one should be silenced, and everyone deserves to know the truth,” Obama said.
Serious moments were fleeting, though, and important people made excuses as to why they were there, and why they keep coming back. Former White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, who decamped for Chicago and became mayor, said he attended the dinner because he was invited by a constituent newspaper: the Chicago Tribune.
“This is my last year,” insisted Colin Powell, idling by his dinner table.
“That’s what you said last year,” his wife, Alma, said.
Staff writers Amy Argetsinger and Roxanne Roberts contributed to this report
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