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Obama jabs at himself, DC's establishment

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But his first joke was about teleprompter. You must be busting with pride.

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Although in my opinion, no one will ever top Stephen Colbert's performance at the annual White House Correspondents’ Association dinner, I will say, I did enjoy this offering from Wanda Sykes.

"We don't need to waterboard sean hannity to break him. I could break sean hannity just by giving him a middle seat in coach."

Taka

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"Former Vice President Dick Cheney couldn't make the dinner, Obama joked, because he was writing his memoir, "How to shoot friends and interrogate people"

Stay classy, Obama.

Sure, that's OK for Jay Leno to say, but for the president of the United States... oh, wait, I forgot, the current president of the United States was ON Jay Leno, never mind.

"I could break sean hannity just by giving him a middle seat in coach"

313 really hates Sean Hannity, ha ha ha!

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President Obama appeared to have a great time at the dinner. He got to talk about how great he thinks he is - and you could tell he wasn't always joking.

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I have deep misgivings about the President of the United States attending such a gathering. In my view, it fosters the perception -- which, face it folks, is the Truth -- that the leaders of the two major political parties are totally in bed with the press, and vice versa.

We have a serious problem in the United States with the casual acceptance of so many non-democratic forces in our body politic. Mentioned during the evening was the state of journalism in the US, and behind everything likes the barely visible hand of the multi-national corporations. They are the hosts which foster, mutate and transmit the anti-democratic viruses that afflict us.

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I did like Sykes joke about blaming it on the half white guy if Obama fails. Nicely done Wanda.

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I did not like a lot of the comments that Wanda Sykes made.

More importantly, I thought she squandered a terrific opportunity to help the continuing healing process among the races in the US.

When she commented on the bi-racial Obama being the "first black president," and then followed up with "until he screws up. Then, it's 'what's wrong with the half-white guy?'," I thought she was going to remind us that, when Obama first cast his hat into the ring for president, the African-American community by and large did NOT support him.

I believe this was because the black community did not want to come to grips with their own cynicism about whites accepting a person of color. She missed a golden opportunity to cast a light on that.

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i disagree yabits, black comedians joking about race is part of the healing process and brings black and white americans closer. i'd agree with you if the stupid media didn't put race so front and center and treated obama's race as a mere footnote, but they don't and it is totally appropriate for comedians to make light of this touchy subject. sykes joking about it makes it that much easier for the nation to loosen up their puckered sphincters about race.

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i disagree yabits, black comedians joking about race is part of the healing process

I agree, but reassert that Sykes did not go nearly far enough. I think you are misinterpreting my previous statement. Saying that members of the black community would be saying "what's wrong with the half-white guy" only skimmed the surface. It would have taken all of 3 minutes to have brought up the black community's failure to embrace Obama from the outset -- and how that tied in to her comment.

We all recall the debate within the black community about Obama's not being "black enough." There is enough tension in that to have made for a LOT of humor. There are a lot of "puckered sphincters" out there and not all the cheeks are white.

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Lest anyone misunderstand, Sykes comment on the "half-white guy" is one that I liked and thought was funny.

As much as I don't care for Rush Limbaugh, I didn't like Sykes comments on him. Especially her comment on his being one of the 9/11 hijackers. It only undermined herself.

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Baby steps bro, baby steps. Sykes comments regarding race were totally appropriate. I'm surprised she even brought up that Obama is half white and made fun of the black community's tendency to project responsibility for a lot of their problems on white people. It was very intelligently done and it was funny to both blacks and whites because its based on reality. Criticizing her for not going any further is your right, but she is the one responsible for her words and has to live with any backlash on a personal or professional level. Put yourself in her shoes and you may see it differently then from behind your own anonymity.

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Baby steps bro, baby steps.

When the opportunity for a giant stride arises, I will plead guilty for lamenting the fact that only a baby step was taken.

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Pretty good stuff overall. I thought the joke about Mexico wasn't really appropriate....people are still dying there and it's destroying their economy. Not really the best of situations to joke about.

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I did not like a lot of the comments that Wanda Sykes made.

Yeah...I agree. I thought the sean hannity comment was so dead on accurate (more accurate than funny, IMO) that I let it slide but I've always thought of the Correspondents Association dinners as more of a roast of the president. I think Wanda should have sent a few more zingers Obama's way.

He's a big boy; he can handle it, as can Michelle, sans f-bombs.

Taka

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Obama "rips" on the media:

"Most of you covered me. All of you voted for me."

Exactly, exactly.

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"Proceeds from the dinner, $98,000, will help feed the hungry"

I'm hungry. Where's my cut?

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Why is it acceptable for Wanda Sykes to make racist jokes?

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The Brits aren't being very nice to world president Obama. It's like they haven't been properly brainwashed or something. "Liberals" are all about tolerance:

"She [Sykes] then concluded: "Rush Limbaugh, I hope the country fails, I hope his kidneys fail, how about that? He needs a good waterboarding, that's what he needs." Obama seemed to think this bit was pretty hilarious, grinning and chuckling and turning to share the "joke" with the person sitting on his right."

"There's not much room for differing interpretations of what Sykes said. She called Limbaugh a terrorist and a traitor, suggested that he be tortured and wished him dead."

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/toby_harnden/blog/2009/05/10/not_funny_barack_obama_laughs_at_wanda_sykes_joke about**wantingrushlimbaugh_**dead

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Saw the replay of the dinner on C-SPAN.

Wanda Sykes wishing Rush's kidneys would fail is basically wishing death on him and Obama found that funny?

A special thanks to Sykes for showing Obama's true character. It proves -- once again -- that he has no class.

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What's the difference between President Obama and all the previous presidents?

All the previous presidents were commanders-in-chief, while Obama is the comic-in-chief.

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sarge,

An un-fed sense of entitlement does not make you hungry.

Taka

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The President of the United States thinking the death of any American citizen as funny makes it clear that this guy has no business being president. Obama is a disgrace.

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Sykes also delivered the following:

"You know, you might want to look into this, [President Obama], because I think maybe Rush Limbaugh was the 20th hijacker, but he was just so strung out on OxyContin he missed his flight."

For a sitting president to laugh at a joke at the expense of 3,000 people killed on 9/11 is beyond unbelievable.

However, the most eye-opening remark of the night was his introduction and welcoming of the press to their honorary event:

"Good evening. I am Barack Obama. Most of you covered me, but ALL of you voted for me!"

He received a thunderous applause, in acknowledgment of the real truth of the evening, from America's unbiased "Fourth Estate".

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For a sitting president to laugh at a joke at the expense of 3,000 people killed on 9/11 is beyond unbelievable.

It is one thing to laugh at someone else's joke. I recall very well when President Obama's predecessor carried on a little skit that made light of the failure to find a trace of WMD in Iraq. Take a nation to war, causing the deaths and maiming of thousands and then joke about it? I wonder if some mother whose son or daughter (in the military) was lying in hospital bed somewhere, having been injured in Iraq, would have thought it was funny.

Decent Americans need no lectures on class from the Republicans, thank you.

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I have heard the arguement about WMD's several times from progressives or liberals or whatever a democrat is supposed to be called these days.

However, this is not the same. Bush was making fun of himself as he often did. Obama was caught on film laughing his head off at Sykes who was directing her comments specifically at someone else.

Nothing will change the fact that Obama thought that wishing bodily harm to another citizen and the deaths of nearly 3,000 fellow Americans on 9/11 was funny. Some "leader".

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However, this is not the same. Bush was making fun of himself as he often did.

The humor of Sykes didn't involve the actual death of anyone.

WMD were the major rationale for an attack that led to the deaths of thousands of Americans. George Bush thinking it was a good idea to make a joke about it is something we guess that only die-hard Republicans can understand.

What we know is that, had Obama launched an invasion on such specious circimstances and then joked about it, Republicans would never let decent Americans hear the end of it. Anyone who can actually try to claim that a joke about Rush as a hijacker is the same as laughing at the victims of 9/11 is ludicrous. Totally ludicrous.

The hijackers, like Rush, want the President to fail. Therein lies the humor, even though you can't seem to understand it.

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