VP Joe Biden & Arnold Schwarzenegger Ham It Up, Roast MIA Obama at Gridiron Dinner Event That Even Coolidge Attended
Posted By Vicki McClure Davidson on March 23, 2009
By Vicki McClure Davidson * Frugal Café Blog Zone
Calvin 'Silent Cal' Coolidge, 30th POTUS
Heck, even Calvin Coolidge attended. “Silent Cal” wasn’t big on speaking publicly, unlike Obama, who loves to ALWAYS be speaking publicly, especially to adoring crowds and the media. So, it was likely that Pres. Coolidge was greatly stressed and uncomfortable attending the gala media event. But, he did it anyway.
Snippets from POTUS Coolidge’s bio on Wikipedia:
Although Coolidge was known to be a skilled and effective public speaker, in private he was a man of few words and was, therefore, commonly referred to as “Silent Cal.” A possibly apocryphal story has it that writer Dorothy Parker, seated next to him at a dinner, said to him, “Mr. Coolidge, I’ve made a bet against a fellow who said it was impossible to get more than two words out of you.” His famous reply: “You lose.” It was also Parker who, upon learning that Coolidge had died, reportedly remarked, “How can they tell?” Coolidge often seemed uncomfortable among fashionable Washington society; when asked why he continued to attend so many of their dinner parties, he replied, “Got to eat somewhere.”
As US President, Coolidge’s reputation as a quiet man continued. “The words of a President have an enormous weight,” he would later write, “and ought not to be used indiscriminately.” Coolidge restored public confidence in the White House after the scandals of his predecessor’s administration, and left office with considerable popularity.
But, I digress.
From Politico, about Obama’s Gridiron snub:
In some Beltway circles, Obama’s absence was viewed as a snub of the media elite, since he chose to be ensconced with his family at Camp David only a brief helicopter ride away. Obama is the first president to skip the dinner in his first year in office since Grover Cleveland in 1885, when the journalists’ club was founded.
Well, that Gridiron dinner event took place this past weekend. And whoa… Obama was roasted off and on all evening. In attendance for the gala event were Vice President Joe “Gaffe-Machine” Biden and California Gov. Arnold “Give Me Mo’ Money” Schwarzenegger. The comments from them about the MIA Obama were unexpectedly hilarious, much like naughty school boys mocking a stern teacher who was out of the room.
Read accountings of the Gridiron dinner in these sources:
Politico: Biden steals the show at Gridiron
The Washington Note: Biden’s Big Bounce at Gridiron Dinner — Perhaps We Need Elite Blogger Evening
Yahoo! News: In Obama’s absence, Biden delights in bashing boss
Yahoo! News: Lots of ham on the menu at annual Gridiron Dinner
Here are some giggle-inducing “burns” gathered from different sources that are destined to become “Obama Burn” classics:
Obama was the first president in decades not to attend the Gridiron Club dinner during his first year in office. He spent the weekend at Camp David with his family, skipping the Saturday night event because he was busy preparing for Easter, Biden said. “He thinks it’s about him,” Biden said of the holiday.
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, the Republican speaker at the dinner, had another explanation for the media and politicians assembled at a downtown Washington ballroom for the festivities. “He’s just not that into you,” Schwarzenegger said, referring to the book and movie with that title.
“Here you were expecting ‘Yes we can,‘” said Schwarzenegger, during the festivities at a downtown hotel ballroom. “And, instead what did you get? ‘Hasta la vista, baby.‘”
Biden even came up with an excuse of sorts for Pres. Cleveland, the only other president to skip the Gridiron dinner: “He was married to a 21-year-old girl and had better things to do.”
Burn! Burn! And double burn! And, Joe? Your joke about why Grover Cleveland didn’t attend was gold, man, pure gold!
Politico: Kroft to Obama: Are you punch-drunk?
Jim Blazsik: Weekend: Top 10 gaffes by Barack Obama and Joe Biden
Steven Crowder, Big Hollywood: Throwing Down With the Governator
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