Obama 'nerd prom' jokes: Did he go too far?
President Obama鈥檚 jokes were pretty pointed at Washington鈥檚 鈥渘erd prom鈥� 鈥� the White House Correspondents鈥� Dinner 鈥� over the weekend. He went after every subgroup gathered in the giant Hilton ballroom, with the possible exception of rehab-prone starlets.
Journalists? Check. 鈥淭he White House Correspondents鈥� Dinner is known as the prom of Washington, D.C. 鈥� a term coined by political reporters who clearly never had the chance to go to an actual prom,鈥� Mr. Obama said.
Congress? Double check. 鈥淚 want to especially thank all the members who took a break from their exhausting schedule of not passing any laws to be here tonight,鈥� joked the president.
Mitt Romney? Send him the check! Obama tripled down on remarks that skewered his presumptive fall opponent. Such as when he said, "Recently, [Mr. Romney鈥檚] campaign criticized me for slow-jamming the news with Jimmy Fallon. In fact, I understand Governor Romney was so incensed he asked his staff if he could get some equal time on 鈥楾he Merv Griffin Show.' 鈥�
Hmm. Did Obama go too far? We鈥檇 say that if nothing else, Obama鈥檚 humor was edgier than that of past presidential performances. For instance, he referred to the recent flaplet over the fact that when young, he was served dog in Indonesia. (鈥淎s my stepfather always told me, 鈥業t鈥檚 a boy-eat-dog world out there.' 鈥�) He waved Republicans' talking points back in their faces. (鈥淚 have not seen 鈥�The Hunger Games.' Not enough class warfare for me.鈥�) He even sort of made an I鈥檓-looking-at-you gesture toward the Supreme Court. (鈥淚n my first term, we passed health-care reform. In my second term, I guess I鈥檒l pass it again.鈥�)
Not everyone approved. At one point over the weekend, the Drudge Report led its home page with the headline, 鈥淏arack bizarre: President jokes about eating dogs?鈥�
But we鈥檒l agree with The Washington Post鈥檚 Chris Cillizza on this one: What Obama did was what presidents usually do with such appearances, which is to appeal to their committed voters. Only partisans follow this kind of thing closely, and Democratic partisans will chortle at Obama鈥檚 humor. Partisan Republicans wouldn鈥檛 have approved of it under virtually any circumstances.
鈥淲hat these presidential speeches tend to do is affirm the already deeply-held feelings of each party鈥檚 base,鈥� on his blog The Fix on Monday.
We鈥檒l add this: If you combine Obama鈥檚 performance with other campaign-related events of the week, Democrats are sending the Romney campaign a message. That message is, 鈥淲e鈥檙e not Rick Santorum.鈥�
In other words, Obama鈥檚 reelection effort is not going to sit there and let the Romney team pour money into negative advertising that defines the president in the way Republicans would prefer. Obama is going to hit preemptively and hard, and he is going to walk right up to the line of propriety, and maybe past it, when it comes to campaigning.
After all, in recent days the Obama reelection team has questioned whether Romney would have ordered the raid that killed Osama bin Laden. Politics ain鈥檛 beanbag, as pundits like to say on cable news. (What is beanbag? How do you play it? We have no idea, and we bet they don鈥檛 either.)
In that context, a little humor about Romney (鈥淚t鈥檚 great to be here this evening in the vast, magnificent Hilton ballroom 鈥� or what Mitt Romney would call 鈥榓 little fixer-upper鈥� 鈥�) may be just a foretaste of the dialogue to come.
