All Kidding Aside

Teresa Wiltz of The Washington Post, Ann Oldenburg of USA Today, Elizabeth White of the Associated Press and Lisa Lambert of Reuters have more.

Not Laughing

Editor & Publisher notes: "A blistering comedy 'tribute' to President Bush by Comedy Central's faux talk show host Stephen Colbert at the White House Correspondent Dinner Saturday night left George and Laura Bush unsmiling at its close. . . .

"Colbert, who spoke in the guise of his talk show character, who ostensibly supports the president strongly, urged the Bush to ignore his low approval ratings, saying they were based on reality, 'and reality has a well-known liberal bias.' . . .

"Colbert closed his routine with a video fantasy where he gets to be White House Press Secretary, complete with a special 'Gannon' button on his podium. By the end, he had to run from Helen Thomas and her questions about why the U.S. really invaded Iraq and killed all those people.

"As Colbert walked from the podium, when it was over, the president and First Lady gave him quick nods, unsmiling, and handshakes, and left immediately."

Here's what CNN's Ed Henry reported: "Now, the president ended his remarks by -- his official remarks by saying that it's really important to laugh in this job. That's probably more true than ever, now that he's so low in the polls. But I have to tell you, near the end of Stephen Colbert's routine, the president didn't really seem to be laughing. He actually seemed to be a little bit annoyed at some of the pokes from Stephen Colbert, it went on for a bit."

The View From the Blogs

Blogger Peter Daou looks at the mainstream media coverage and finds: "Colbert's performance is sidestepped and marginalized while Bush is treated as light-hearted, humble, and funny. Expect nothing less from the cowardly American media. The story could just as well have been Bush and Laura's discomfort and the crowd's semi-hostile reaction to Colbert's razor-sharp barbs. In fact, I would guess that from the perspective of newsworthiness and public interest, Bush-the-playful-president is far less compelling than a comedy sketch gone awry, a pissed-off prez, and a shell-shocked audience."

Blogger Billmon writes: "Colbert used satire the way it's used in more openly authoritarian societies: as a political weapon, a device for raising issues that can't be addressed directly. He dragged out all the unmentionables -- the Iraq lies, the secret prisons, the illegal spying, the neutered stupidity of the lapdog press -- and made it pretty clear that he wasn't really laughing at them, much less with them. It may have been comedy, but it also sounded like a bill of indictment, and everybody understood the charges. . . .

"Colbert's real sin . . . was inserting a brief moment of honesty into an event based upon a lie -- one considered socially necessary by the political powers that be, but still, a lie."

Video Dog writes in Salon: "The real sign of Stephen Colbert's success at the White House Correspondents' Dinner wasn't his jokes -- which, from beginning to end, were spot-on . . . from Bush's handling of the war ('I believe the government that governs best is the government that governs least. And by these standards, we have set up a fabulous government in Iraq.'), his low-30s approval rating ('I ask you this, does that not also logically mean that 68 percent approve of the job he's not doing?'), to sidelong whacks at John McCain, Fox News and Donald Rumsfeld, among others. And no, it wasn't the grim-looking handshake he received from the President or the icy glare he received from Laura Bush that let us know that he hit his targets. . . .

"The proof of his accuracy lies in how badly the . . . Washington press corps reacted. After all, this wasn't the usual baby-soft slapstick they usually get at the correspondents' dinner . . . [F]or the most part the press sat on their hands -- while just moments before, they were laughing uproariously at President Bush's incredibly lame skit with a Bush impressionist. That was Colbert's real feat: Showing us the real Washington media world, where everyone worries so much about offending someone, anyone , that the least bit of frank talk turns them into obedient little church mice."

The Moderate Voice has an extensive roundup of blogger response, including several conservatives.