Politics

Highlights From the White House Correspondents' Dinner

The party was last night, and the hangover has set in. These are the some of the best jokes and weirdest pictures from the White House Correspondents' Dinner.

Connor Simpson

This article is from the archive of our partner .

The party was last night, and the hangover has set in. These are the some of the best jokes and weirdest pictures from the White House Correspondents' Dinner.

Obama's speech didn't pack the same punch as it did last year, but to his credit, nothing was off limits. Obama cracked jokes about the GSA scandal, the Secret Service scandal, the contraception debate, and Congress's inability to pass laws over the last year. He opened by asking the crowd to remember, "this time -- in fact, on this very weekend -- we finally delivered justice to one of the world’s most notorious individuals," and then flashed a picture of Donald Trump. 

Obama, of course, joked about his opponent in the general election, Mitt Romney. He joked that Romney would call the "vast, magnificent Hilton ballroom" a fixer-upper. He also joked about the surging popularity of their wives, Michelle Obama and Ann Romney. "We both think of our wives as our better halves," he said, "and polls show, to a alarmingly insulting extent, the American people agree."  He also joked about how his education stacks up against Romney's: "We also both have degrees from Harvard; I have one, he has two.  What a snob."

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The president closed by tipping his hat to the press in the room, and asking the room to remember Anthony Shadid and Marie Colvin, two journalists who died this year. He added that he had more material prepared, "but I have to get the Secret Service home in time for their new curfew." You can watch the full video of his speech here: 

Jimmy Kimmel cracked a bunch of jokes about the secret service scandal. He might have got the most laughs when, at the start of his speech, he warned the President of his forthcoming Secret Service jokes and told him "to cover his ears, if that's even humanly possible." 

He did admit that he was nervous to be speaking in front of the President. "It's kind of hard to be funny with the President of the United States sitting right next to you, looking right at you, and yet somehow, day in and day out, Joe Biden manages to do it." 

You can watch his whole routine here: 

Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta cracked jokes with director Steven Spielberg. (Associated Press)

Former presidential hopeful Rick Santorum mingled with Lindsay Lohan (Associated Press)

CNN host Piers Morgan took Goldie Hawn to the dinner as his plus one. (Associated Press)

Kris Jenner and daughter Kim Kardashian got to go to the party, but Kardashian's boyfriend and occasional target of Obama's ire, Kanye West, was nowhere to be found. (Associated Press)

Dreamboat and fictional dream Presidential candidate George Clooney was there. (Associated Press)

Kate Hudson partied alongside Washington Post publishing heiress Lally Weimouth and Newt Gingrich, and Calista Gingrich's hair is just visible on the right side of the picture. (Reuters)

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This article is from the archive of our partner The Wire.