Tuesday, May 02, 2006

Stephen Colbert at the White House Correspondents' Dinner.

Just in case anyone might have missed it, I think the highlight of the White House Correspondents' Dinner over the weekend was Stephen Colbert's sharp presentation at the very end of the Dinner. Not surprisingly, the more light-hearted "cutesy" exchanges between Bush and the Bush-impersonator who appears on Jay Leno's show regularly have gotten most of the coverage from the big news outlets. Although I enjoyed that and thought it just further underscores the credibility problems that abound with the current administration, I think Colbert's "roast" was by far the best part of the night.

Colbert, in his persona from the Colbert Report, stood up for Bush on such matters as ignoring silly approval polls that really just show what the public thinks "in reality," the implementation of an effective government in Iraq (because the government that governs best is the one that governs least), and disregard for factual accuracy and instead letting "history decide what did or did not happen." Colbert got shots in on a number of others, including Fox News, Tony Snow, and John McCain. One of the funniest moments was an exchange between Colbert and Justice Scalia, which Colbert described as merely exchanging pleasantries with his "paison."

Following is Colbert's entire presentation:

**UPDATE (May 9):
There is some "rumbling" around the internet that CSpan has asked video host sites such as youtube to remove the videos of Colbert. I don't know whether they will, but even if they do, the entire video can be viewed on a CSpan approved host at google-video:
Google-Video Video of Colbert
**UPDATE (May 10):
Youtube has complied and removed the videos. You can read about it HERE

**UPDATE:
DailyKos has the transcript for the entire presentation, if you'd prefer reading it to watching it, or if you'd prefer to follow along.

2 Comments:

Blogger M said...

Stephen Colbert rocked. Bush's impersonator... was just cute, albeit in a sinister "while Rome burns" kinda way.

8:15 PM  
Blogger Kierkegaard Lives said...

Thanks for stopping by michelle. I'm going to have to spend some time perusing The Dark and Moody Chicks!

And, fwiw, I totally agree with you and your thoughts about Jon Stewart vs. Billy Crystal; I enjoy Crystal as a comedian and actor, but easily prefer Stewart as Oscar host.

10:41 AM  

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