Sticking it to Bush when he's sitting right next to you

[kleph]

lotta funny to be had here at The White House Correspondents' Association annual dinner which bush attended.

sounds like stephen colbert ran away with the thing. you gotta admit, he has balls giving it to the man this hard when he was sitting not ten feet away.
http://www.pej.org/html/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=4588&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0

and bush - with a look alike - actually played along with the joke. (its tough to get from some of the horribly written stories but the way the gag worked is bush would say something and the fake "bush" would say what he actually was thinking) don't have a full video for that, though.
http://edition.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/04/30/bush.press.dinner.ap/

[amj]

Ah man, that's classic stuff. He's just getting right into there on every issue possible!

[kleph]

a few of my favorites...

"Wow, wow, what an honor. The White House Correspondents' Dinner. To just sit here, at the same table with my hero, George W. Bush, to be this close to the man. I feel like I'm dreaming. Somebody pinch me. You know what, I'm a pretty sound sleeper, that may not be enough. Somebody shoot me in the face."

"And though I am a committed Christian, I believe that everyone has the right to their own religion, be it Hindu, Jewish or Muslim. I believe there are infinite paths to accepting Jesus Christ as your personal savior."

"We know that polls are just a collection of statistics that reflect what people are thinking in "reality." And reality has a well-known liberal bias."

"I believe the government that governs best is the government that governs least. And by these standards, we have set up a fabulous government in Iraq."

" He believes the same thing Wednesday, that he believed on Monday, no matter what happened Tuesday. Events can change, this man's beliefs never will."

"Fox News gives you both sides of every story, the President's side and the Vice President's side. But the rest of you, what are you thinking, reporting on N.S.A. wiretapping or secret prisons in Eastern Europe? Those things are secret for a very important reason, they're superdepressing."

[kleph]

from the Editor & Publisher wrapup (http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1002425363):

As Colbert walked from the podium, when it was over, the president and First Lady gave him quick nods, unsmiling. The president shook his hand and tapped his elbow, and left immediately.

Those seated near Bush told E&P's Joe Strupp, who was elsewhere in the room, that Bush had quickly turned from an amused guest to an obviously offended target as Colbert’s comments brought up his low approval ratings and problems in Iraq.

...

Asked by E&P after it was over if he thought he'd been too harsh, Colbert said, "Not at all." Was he trying to make a point politically or just get laughs? "Just for laughs," he said. He said he did not pull any material for being too strong, just for time reasons. (He later said the president told him "good job" when he walked off.)


you can also find a ton of links to assessments of colbert's performance from across the political spectrum on The Moderate Voice (scroll down a bit, it follows their report on the presentation itself): http://www.themoderatevoice.com/posts/1146380087.shtml

[Up_All_Night]

hahaha awesome

[Spades]

but does Bush get it??

[Aardvark]

Ahh, Mr Colbert. You have the cure to the daily blues

Why hasn't any Australian TV picked up the rights to the Colbert Report yet? CNN of all stations has Daily Show International, but why has no one gone for the Report?

[biomechanic]

That man has got balls of steel.
I wonder if the words "I have a clear shot" were muttered from the other side of the room at some point.

[kleph]

my favorite part is the endless navel-gazing by the pundits afterward. its like the irony goes on for ever and the party never ends.

http://www.technorati.com/search/stephen%20colbert%20bush

[Aardvark]

http://www.conspiracyplanet.com/channel.cfm?channelid=104&contentid=3477&page=2

[kleph]

if you scroll through googlenews for media accounts of the dinner you will notice that colbert's address is... well, it is like it didn't even happen. Peter Daou's opinion piece (http://news.yahoo.com/s/huffpost/20060430/cm_huffpost/020092;_ylt=A86.I2aOX1VEBVIByRv9wxIF;_ylu=X3oDMTBj MHVqMTQ4BHNlYwN5bnN1YmNhdA--) on that point is rather enlightening:

"The AP's first stab at it and pieces from Reuters and the Chicago Tribune tell us everything we need to know: Colbert's performance is sidestepped and marginalized while Bush is treated as light-hearted, humble, and funny. Expect nothing less from the cowardly American media.

The story could just as well have been Bush and Laura's discomfort and the crowd's semi-hostile reaction to Colbert's razor-sharp barbs. In fact, I would guess that from the perspective of newsworthiness and public interest, Bush-the-playful-president is far less compelling than a comedy sketch gone awry, a pissed-off prez, and a shell-shocked audience.

This is the power of the media to choose the news, to decide when and how to shield Bush from negative publicity. Sins of omission can be just as bad as sins of commission."

I find this to ring particularly true in light of the American media's track record (http://www.unknownnews.net/040813postapology.html) on just this point when dealing with the current administration.

[Aardvark]

Finally sat down and watched the thing in its entirety

I haven't seen balls that big since the Rodney King beating trial

[anothe]

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

http://www.mininova.org/get/296239

400mb (complete conference) high quality torrent sauce :)

INSANE amount of seeds

you could cut the tension in that room with a knife..

[Up_All_Night]

Why hasn't any Australian TV picked up the rights to the Colbert Report yet? CNN of all stations has Daily Show International, but why has no one gone for the Report?

this comes up frequently with me and my brother when we bitch about the comedy channel on foxtel. They should have daily show on at 6.30 and colbert report on at 7.30 every night!

[FireHart]

Finally something good on C-SPAN

[babarfloyd]

That...was...AWESOME!

Colbert has balls of steel! Poor guy will probably be audited by the IRS for the rest of his life now.

[Aardvark]

But the daily show is only half an hour long

And not the comedy channel. If there's one thing that kills laughter dead in the water, its a comedy channel promo. They have a fantastic ability to destroy a show before you've even seen it.

Even more so than the commercial networks

[Up_All_Night]

well where else, itd have to be on cable and commedy channel already runs some comedy central shows

[Mr. Bungle]

i didnt click on all the links to see if it was posted, but here it is on You Tube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcIRXur61II

[kleph]

jon stewart declared it "ballsalicious"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yMWxaF4zlqk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ax4rotjrylo

[Mr Bigglesworth]

"I wouldnt drink it, the last third is usually backwash" - comparing Bush's 32% approval rating with the 'half-full = optimist' mantra.

Im suprised the guy lived through the night.

[Up_All_Night]

so was there any follow up on this? As to if they didnt know what he was doing or people criticising it or what?

[Mr. Bungle]

the washington post ran some stuff about it yesterday.... i cant really find a consensus though. it seems to me that the white house press corps wasnt amused by it. i really cant belive the cajones that Colbert has.

[kleph]

romenesko (http://www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=45) has probably the best collection of links (i.e. those not from the extremes of political bias)

my view is that he would have applauded if he just kept pounding on bush but he messed up when he made this little dig:

And as excited as I am to be here with the president, I am appalled to be surrounded by the liberal media that is destroying America, with the exception of Fox News.

Fox News gives you both sides of every story, the President's side and the Vice President's side.

But the rest of you, what are you thinking, reporting on N.S.A. wiretapping or secret prisons in Eastern Europe? Those things are secret for a very important reason, they're superdepressing.

And if that's your goal, well, misery accomplished. Over the last five years you people were so good over tax cuts, W.M.D. intelligence, the affect of global warming. We Americans didn't want to know, and you had the courtesy not to try to find out. Those were good times, as far as we knew.

But, listen, let's review the rules. Here's how it works. The President makes decisions, he's the decider. The Press Secretary announces those decisions, and you people of the press type those decisions down.

Make, announce, type. Put them through a spell check and go home. Get to know your family again. Make love to your wife. Write that novel you got kicking around in your head.

You know, the one about the intrepid Washington reporter with the courage to stand up to the administration.

You know, fiction.

[kleph]

the san francisco chronicle's culture blog has a great entry on the colbert extravaganza (linky linky (http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/sfgate/detail?blogid=3&entry_id=4791)) that makes the intresting and slightly disturbing observation:

It appears YouTube has now yanked the Colbert videos, citing copyright infringement -- which is entirely possible, though it's hard to imagine C-SPAN not enjoying all the free publicity. Hmm.

[Scythe]

I think ZGeek needs a "Look at the Big Brass Balls on that!" award to go alongside "Tool of the Week" award.

I hereby nominate both both Colbert and this guy (http://www.zgeek.com/forum/showthread.php?t=51685).

[kleph]

and the party just keeps on rolling along...

http://blogs.usatoday.com/ondeadline/2006/05/colbert_chatter.html

but i draw the line at lord of the rings inspired colbert fan fiction...

http://www.colbertnation.com/colbertnation/fanfic_blr1.jhtml

[Up_All_Night]

Stephen Colbert: Court Jester (http://www.mininova.org/tor/301864)

Torrent on mini nova of a radio show.

Stephen Colbert: Court Jester
Open Source with Christopher Lydon (http://www.radioopensource.org/stephen-colbert-court-jester/) (5 May, 2006)

This is the only good broadcast news analysis of Stephen Colbert's performance at this year's White House Correspondent's Dinner (last Saturday night) that I have found. Included is discussion on the fragility of ironic parody as a form of humor, why it's dependent upon acting skills as much as language, and how Colbert's use of character-irony played at the dinner versus how it plays on his TV show.

Christopher Lydon is a familiar voice for Boston area NPR listeners via his many years on various WBUR's news and commentary programs. This show, Open Source, is a web-centric (live & archives) production partnership between mainstream radio's WBUR & the University of Massachusetts at Lowell's School of Journalism.

http://www.radioopensource.org/stephen-colbert-court-jester/

runtime=52:00 | filesize=23.8mb (24,962,207 bytes) | stream=mp3 @64kbps 1channel CBR