Cheered by Hollywood stars, US President Barack Obama late on Saturday lampooned Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney’s wealth and mined a shaggy dog story about his foe, striking a rare light note in the bitter White House race.
Obama used an annual star-studded dinner with White House correspondents and Hollywood A-listers, which presidents use to rip their rivals, to take a few gentle shots at Rommey, before the two rivals face off for the presidency.
He riffed off the hit movie the Hunger Games to poke Romney’s hard bore Republican primary approach which he said saw “wealthy sponsors” brutally savage each other until only one contestant is left standing.
“I’m sure this was a great change of pace for him,” Obama joked before a crowd of 2,000 journalists and celebrities.
“Everybody is predicting a nasty election, and thankfully, we’ve all agreed that families are off-limits,” Obama said, after a period when the two campaigns have feuded over the women’s vote.
“Dogs, however, are apparently fair game,” Obama quipped.
Romney has been dogged by Democratic supporters who keep bringing up the former Massachusetts governor’s long-time ago family road trip when he affixed his family pet aboard the roof of his station wagon in a kennel.
As Obama spoke, a large screen in the ballroom of the Washington hotel hosting the dinner, pictured a mock-up of a dog kennel atop Air Force One.
Obama also jabbed Congress, which has frustrated his job creation plans and most of the rest of his agenda since Republicans seized the House of Representatives in 2010 mid-term elections.
“I’ve tried to be civil, to not take any cheap shots. And that’s why I want to especially thank all the members who took a break from their exhausting schedule of not passing any laws to be here tonight,” he said.
The president also took a swipe at a remodelling project in one of Romney’s homes in California, quipping that the huge ballroom in the home was what his foe would call a “little fixer upper.”
He also gently ribbed US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, his former Democratic primary rival, who was pictured enjoying a late night drink with friends at the Summit of Americas several weeks ago.
“Four years ago, I was locked in a brutal primary battle with Hillary Clinton. Four years later, she won’t stop drunk texting me from Cartagena,” Obama said.
The president, who was embarrassed by a US Secret Service sex scandal during a recent trip to Colombia took a gentle swipe at his elite bodyguard.
“I had a lot more material prepared, but I have to get the Secret Service home before their new curfew,” he said.
There was no sign of Romney at the dinner, though there were sightings of his combative political aide Eric Fehrnstrom.
The dinner gets blanket media coverage in glamor-challenged Washington, which is sometimes mockingly referred to as “Hollywood, for ugly people.”
It is an annual chance for media and political elites in Washington, a town where those looking for starpower normally have to make do with cabinet members or senators, to rub shoulder with Hollywood’s biggest stars.
This year’s dinner, the centerpiece of a weekend of parties, will be memorable for political reasons too. Obama had a fine line to tread as he enters a six-month sprint to November’s presidential election.
The dinner gave the president the chance to be funny, come across as “cool” and a free invitation to poke fun at his political opponents.
However, at a time when Republicans are again contrasting his “celebrity” with the plight of Americans still going through economic pain, he might not have much to gain from hanging out with a bunch of Hollywood celebrities.
Last year at the dinner, Obama put on the ultimate show of political sang-froid, ordering the raid that was to kill al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden, then stepping up on stage to wisecrack his way through his speech.
Twenty-four hours later, he would appear on television again — to announce the successful completion of the US Navy SEALs raid deep into Pakistan.
Celebrities at the dinner included reality TV starlet Kim Kardashian, hard partying actress Lindsay Lohan and hearthrob and Oscar winner George Clooney.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
‘DELUSIONAL’: Targeting the families of Hamas’ leaders would not push the group to change its position or to give up its demands for Palestinians, Ismail Haniyeh said Israeli aircraft on Wednesday killed three sons of Hamas’ top political leader in the Gaza Strip, striking high-stakes targets at a time when Israel is holding delicate ceasefire negotiations with the militant group. Hamas said four of the leader’s grandchildren were also killed. Ismail Haniyeh’s sons are among the highest-profile figures to be killed in the war so far. Israel said they were Hamas operatives, and Haniyeh accused Israel of acting in “the spirit of revenge and murder.” The deaths threatened to strain the internationally mediated ceasefire talks, which appeared to gain steam in recent days even as the sides remain far
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of