It dawned on me last night while watching the White House Correspondents Dinner that it's an evening where folks in politics get to pretend they're in show business…and folks in show business get to pretend they're in politics…and they're both right. I usually think of it as an enormous but intriguing waste of time and one of those events that suggest much of our political rhetoric is bogus. If it was earnest, some of those people should have been slapping each other instead of dining cordially in the same room.
Last night's event, at least as it appeared on C-Span, suggested something very American to me. In how many other countries could this take place? I can think of a couple but it's not a long list. I have a hunch that Muammar Muhammad al-Gaddafi doesn't annually don a tux, fraternize with the press and sit there and get roasted by a Libyan comedian. Admittedly, Seth Meyers didn't spend as long on Obama's shortcomings as he did on Donald Trump's…but Obama is actually going to be on the ballot and in a way, the remarks about him no longer being the guy America elected were a lot crueler than making fun of Trump's hair. If people are going to make fun of you, wouldn't you rather they picked on your hair than your personal integrity?
I thought Meyers' material was sharp. His delivery is a little amateurish and in a way, that helps him because he seems so innocent and non-confrontational. Later, I watched a little of Jay Leno's last appearance at one of these dinners and I was struck by the contrast. Leno "sold" his jokes better but his jokes just weren't as good. Meyers had the wisdom to open, not with jokes that put anyone in the audience on the defensive, but with lines about C-Span and the hotel and Washington parties, thereby getting them laughing at others before anyone had to laugh at themselves. It was really a very skillful performance.
A lot of websites today are reporting on how annoyed Donald Trump was at comments by Meyers and by the President. I don't think he was mad at all about them. I think he was mad at the way the rest of the audience laughed (perhaps overlaughed) at them. And not to be mentioned at all would have pissed him off even more.
Obviously, I don't know Mr. Trump. Apart from the one near-encounter I wrote about the other day, I've had only one other brush with him. One day we were in editing at Modern Videofilm on an episode of Garfield and Friends, and he and Ivana (I think) walked into our bay, hopelessly lost and late for something they were supposed to view elsewhere in the building. Even before I recognized who it was, you could feel the self-importance in the room.
But my guess on all this is that he tossed his hat into the ring (that is not a hair joke) kind of as a publicity stunt and attention-getting device…and that maybe in the last few weeks, he's had moments where he thinks, "Hey, I could actually win this thing" and maybe he's started taking it seriously. But he also has to be looking at polls now that say that a pretty large percentage of this country is starting to really hate him…and that's before he's credible enough as a candidate that the opposition's going to start really going after him. Last night, he obviously didn't enjoy insulting jokes delivered with a smile. How's he going to take to some pretty important people calling him, in all seriousness, a dangerous megalomaniac?
And how about them digging around in his past, hauling out every stupid thing he's ever said and all his many legal hassles? Is this man equipped to be a good loser? Or even a proper team player in the Republican Party? I don't think so. A lot of his income if he doesn't become President flows from people liking him, trusting him and being impressed with him. Does he want to gamble that on the slim chance he can get the nomination, let alone beat Barack Obama? I don't think so.