President Obama Attends 'Nerd Prom' aka WH Correspondents Dinner

Photos

President Obama's Night With White House Correspondents

see larger image

uploaded by Pythiian1

• 

  uploaded by Pythiian1 | add comment

• 

  uploaded by Pythiian1 | add comment

• 

  uploaded by Jay Tamboli | add comment

• 

  uploaded by Jay Tamboli | add comment

• 

  uploaded by Jay Tamboli | add comment

• 

  uploaded by Jay Tamboli | add comment

• 

  uploaded by Jay Tamboli | add comment

• 

  uploaded by Jay Tamboli | add comment

• 

  uploaded by Jay Tamboli | add comment

• 

  uploaded by Jay Tamboli | add comment

Every year since 1920, each President of the United States had hosted the annual White House Correspondents' Association dinner. 

This year is President Obama's first dinner, which is guaranteed to be surrounded by a slew of Hollywood celebrities, entertainers, and fashion designers.  Politicians from both sides of the aisle and journalists from various news organizations also attend this annual event.

NP Amy Judd has previewed the annual White House Correspondents' Association dinner, dubbed "nerd prom," by the Washington crowd.

According to the 2009 Association's President, Ms. Jennifer Loven from the Associated Press, the dinner would not have any dessert this evening because the Association had decided to donate the money to a local charitable organization.  Numerous news organizations also matched the WHCA's donation. 

C-SPAN is broadcasting the entire event at 8 PM EST.  C-Span streams some portions of the program and also includes a Twitter coverage on its page.

For those who are on Twitter, folks will be tweeting all night under a few hastags, #nerdprom, #whca,  and #whcd, TheFix, and anamariecox.  

The evening featured a video review of the presidential election campaign vignettes of then candidates Barack Obama and John McCain interspersed with President George W. Bush's various activities including Jenna Bush's wedding, the Beijing Olympics, the final lead up to the election result of Mr. Obama, President Bush's farewell speech, and the inauguration of President Barack Obama.  

Mrs. Obama presented the White House Correspondents' Association scholarship awards to 16 students from various universities, including Howard University, University of Missouri, School of Journalism, Northwestern University, University of Maryland, School of Journalism, and Columbia University, School of Journalism.  Congratulations to all recipients. 

The Correspondents' Association Awards were presented by Mr. Brian Williams of NBC to journalists from People Magazine, National Public Radio, The Seattle Times, and the Washington Post. 

President Obama opened his remarks with a quip, "I had a speech prepared, but I'd like to speak off-the-cuff", as the teleprompters loudly rose up in front of him.  He followed with, "Tonight, Malia and Sasha are grounded, you can't just take Air Force One for a joyride to New York, I don't care whose kids they are,  there are ground rules." 

The US President poked fun at his warm relationship with Secretary Clinton, "When she returned from Mexico, she pulled me into a tight hug with a kiss and told me to go down there as soon as possible." POTUS even had a shout-out to Mr. Michael Steele, Chairman of the Republican party.

President Obama closed his remarks by addressing the challenges and difficulties that the news media industry had been experiencing in the United States.  He spoke about the important role of the media for holding the government accountable on behalf of the public.  "The American public needed a vibrant media that demanded honesty from the government," said President Obama.

Some of Ms. Wanda Sykes's funny moments were: when she asked President Obama about his basketball game, "Are you even any good, with all the Secret Service agents surrounding you?"

Ms. Sykes didn't spare Mrs. Obama either, "Look, the country is broke, sleeves cost money, so you have the right to bare your arms." She chided Mrs. Obama for hugging the Queen, "Michelle you can't do that, patting her like she just slid into home plate."

Apparently, in the Twitter world, most tweets did not think Ms. Sykes was all that funny and she did cross the line in some aspects of her humor.  Most thought the President was funnier.

The evening closed when Ms. Loven introduced the next Association's President, Mr. Edwin Chen from Bloomberg.

Updates have been provided throughout this piece as event develops.