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Obama attends first White House Correspondents Dinner

by Amy Judd | May 9, 2009 at 12:20 pm

557 views | 28 Recommendations | 5 comments

President Barack Obama will attend his first White House Correspondents dinner tonight, and many eyes will be on him to see how he deals with the evening.

In recent years the president has received a "roasting" from the special guest of the evening, usually a comedian.

The commander-in-chief has to endure having fun poked at him - and so far it has only been a him - while the world's media look on and chuckle.

This year Wanda Sykes will be providing the comedic relief.

This dinner tradition started in 1920 and every year the president is the guest of honour.
Things got a little awkward in 2006 when Stephen Colbert ripped into George Bush for over 20 mins, in which he no longer had a smile at the end.

However, it seems to be well worth going for the food, as each ticket is $200, but this year the diners will get no dessert, as the extra money will be given to a homeless shelter as a sign of the economic times.
As in past years, the White House Correspondent for the New York Times will not be attending, as in 2007 Frank Rich wrote:

"the fete is a crystallization of the press's failures in the post-9/11 era: it illustrates how easily a propaganda-driven White House can enlist the Washington news media in its shows".

Some celebrities will be attending however, such as Ben Affleck, Sting and Jon Bon Jovi.

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Pythiian1

at 12:39 on May 9th, 2009

This year's WH Correspondents dinner should be interesting as this is the first for President Obama and people are naturally curious, whether they like him or not.

JeffHuang

at 12:56 on May 9th, 2009

Interesting. I think Wanda Sykes wont repeat Colbert's mistake. I remember seeing her on Leno a while back and she LOOVES Obama. I'm sure her jokes won't cross the line too much.