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With Donald Trump in attendance as the guest of The Washington Post, President Obama's speech at the White House Correspondents' Dinner Saturday night opened with video that flashed his long-form Hawaii birth certificate between clips of sports triumphs to the music of wrestler Hulk Hogan's theme song, "I Am A Real American," sung by Rick Derringer:
I am a real American, Fight for the rights of every man,
I am a real American, fight for what's right, fight for your life!
YouTube - President Obama at the 2011 White House Correspondents' Dinner
The President began his remarks with, "My fellow Americans... Mahalo!"
Echoing a parody by The Onion earlier in the week, Afterbirthers Demand To See Obama's Placenta, Obama announced he was releasing his birth video before showing a scene from The Lion King, the Disney animated musical set in Africa.
But the very best line went to his wife, Michelle: "We made a terrific team at the Easter egg roll this week. I'd give out bags of candy to the kids and she'd snatch them right back out of their little hands." She smiled and mouthed, "Nooooo." He countered wryly, "Snatched 'em!"
He addressed Trump directly, with great relish: "All kidding aside, we all know about your credentials and experience. In "Celebrity Apprentice," the men's cooking team did not impress the judges from Omaha steaks, but you recognized that this was a lack of leadership, so you fired Gary Busey." Wait for it...
"These are the kinds of decisions that would keep me up at night. Well-handled, sir. Well-handled."
(The screenshot above of Trump -- and the still shot in the YouTube video above -- came right after Obama said, "Omaha steaks" and was a rare slip in his relentlessly stony-faced reaction to jabs last night.)
The centerpiece was a bloopers reel, self-deprecating bits about himself and the blooper-prone Vice President Joe Biden set in the context of the Presidential teleprompter being defunded.
The President ended seriously with a tribute to the troops and by thanking journalists for their service -- journalists!
"Through it all, we've seen men and women risk their lives for the simple idea that no one should be silenced and everyone deserves to know the truth.... That's the principle that you uphold." It seemed an extraordinarily gracious nod to his hosts.
The real comedian of the evening, Saturday Night Live's Seth Myers, nodded at the New York Times paywall in a roundup of afterparties:
"The New York Times party used to be free but tonight apparently there's a cover so like everyone else I'll probably just go to the Huffington Post party. And the Huffington Post party is asking people to go to other parties first and just steal food and drinks and bring it from there."
Myers' best line, after zinging the potential GOP contenders in 2012, and dismissing the field: "But I tell you who could definitely beat you, Mr. President: 2008 Barack Obama. You would have loved him."
