Faboom, Baby

With all due respect to Wanda Sykes, President Barack Obama at last night's White House Correspondents dinner simply killed.

I didn't appreciate the jokes about Mexico's swine flu epidemic (8:20) but it's still a far cry from making jokes about nonexistent WMD for which hundreds of troops died looking.

He took some great pot shots at John Boehner, Rush Limbaugh, Michael Steele, Dick Cheney and Arlen Specter. He'd also, in all fairness, raked his own people over the coals, including himself.

The President looked as if he was having fun and that's what we need in the White House- a sense of fun without the attendant maliciousness.

A personal observation: The President seriously addressed the function of the media and praised the role that they have on the role of government and the ideals of which Mr. Obama spoke last night were conspicuously absent all throughout the last administration: The demand for transparency and accountability, and rising to the top of their game to keep the administration at the top of its game.

Over the last eight years, that simply hasn't been the case and I cannot believe the Chief Executive believes otherwise. The dinner was, as always, a black tie affair and President Obama, in his impeccable black suit and tie, looked as if he came not to praise the media but to bury it.

Update: Roy Edroso at The Village Voice spelunked into the fetid sewers of Right Blogostan to get their reaction to Wanda Sykes' and the President's performances. Poor ole Roy took a lotta hits for the team so make sure you read his entire post. It's a howl.