“The end of the Republic has never looked better.”
President Obama began his eighth and last Correspondents’ Dinner with a bleak but funny assessment of American politics that ended with a comically timed mic drop.
Every year the President gives a speech roasting his audience at the Correspondents’ Dinner—members of the White House press corps—to take a break from the everyday press detailing and seriousness of running a country, and to have some fun for a night.
“Eight years ago, I said it was time to change the tone of our politics. In hindsight, I clearly should have been more specific,” he continued.
The president mixed self-deprecation with breezy political commentary that seemed culled from almost a year of presidential campaigning and an insistence on remaining impartial.
Sometimes, that political impartiality fell away, provoking laughter from the gathered correspondents gathered in Washington.
“Next year at this time, someone else will be standing here in this very spot, and it’s anyone’s guess who she will be.”
As far as current events go, the president took broad swipes at the Republican and Democratic candidates in the upcoming election.
He called Bernie Sanders, who was in attendance, his “comrade”:
“I am hurt, though, Bernie, that you’ve distanced yourself a little from me. I mean, that’s just not something that you do to your comrade.”
He poked fun at Hillary Clinton’s tough time connecting with young voters:
“You’ve got to admit it, though, Hillary trying to appeal to young voters is a little bit like your relative just signed up for Facebook. ‘Dear America, did you get my poke?’ ‘Is it appearing on your wall?’ ‘I’m not sure I am using this right. Love, Aunt Hillary.’”
He made fun of Ted Cruz for calling a basketball hoop a “ring”:
“Ted had a tough week. He went to Indiana—Hoosier country—stood on a basketball court, and called the hoop a ‘basketball ring.’ What else is in his lexicon? Baseball sticks? Football hats?”
Near the end, he tricked the audience by appearing as though he was not going to do what the audience expected: take a few shots at Donald Trump’s foreign policy—which, of course he did:
“They say Donald lacks the foreign policy experience to be President. But, in fairness, he has spent years meeting with leaders from around the world: Miss Sweden, Miss Argentina, Miss Azerbaijan.”
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