Obama roasts himself, rivals at dinner

US President Barack Obama is shown on a screen as he speaks during the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner in Washington on May 3, 2014. [Photo/Agencies]

US President Barack Obama cracked jokes about the government's disastrous healthcare policy rollout and mocked political opponents at the White House Correspondents' Dinner late on Saturday.

The annual dinner, filled with insider jokes and elbow jabs masquerading as humor, brings Washington journalists together with celebrities and power brokers for a meal with the president and first lady.

"In 2008, my slogan was 'Yes We Can'. In 2013, my slogan was Control+Alt+Delete," the president joked, a reference to the technical problems on HealthCare.gov, the website created for his signature healthcare overhaul.

There was also a technical problem with a video segment that Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sibelius, who was blamed for the HealthCare.gov debacle, showed up to "fix".

Obama made light of his low popularity ratings, but also took a swipe at Republicans opposed to raising the minimum wage. "If you want to get paid for not working, you should run for Congress just like everyone else," he said.

The president did not spare the cable TV news networks.

Obama said that he was happy to be at the dinner, but was "a little jet-lagged" after returning from his trip to Malaysia. "The lengths we have to travel to get CNN coverage," he quipped.

The reference was to CNN's blanket coverage of the missing Malaysia Airlines airplane that for a time pushed all other news off their airwaves.

He mocked MSNBC's low viewership, then took a jab at Fox News.

"Let's face it, Fox, you'll miss me when I'm gone. It'll be harder to convince the American people that Hillary was born in Kenya," he said.

Former secretary of state Hillary Clinton is widely seen as the front-runner in the 2016 presidential race, though she has been coy about her intention to run.

While CNN and MSNBC carried the event live, Fox aired a special on the 2012 attack on the US consulate in Benghazi, Libya. Conservatives have long blamed Obama officials, including Clinton, for mishandling the debacle.

Obama joined journalists, government officials, politicians and media personalities for the evening of humor and celebrity gazing that has become an annual tradition in the US capital.

First lady Michelle Obama accompanied him to the black tie event.

The featured speaker, TV comedian Joel McHale, did not spare the president.

He praised Obama's performance, then said that his favorite presidential joke "was when you said you would close the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay. That was classic. That was hilarious".

Obama promised to shut down the controversial "war on terror" prison at a US naval base in Cuba when he took office in January 2009, but the site is still open.

Most of McHale's jokes however were at the expense of the corpulent governor of New Jersey, Chris Christie, who was at the dinner.

McHale mocked Christie's girth as well as a local traffic scandal that could sink his hopes to become the 2016 Republican presidential nominee. "I promise that tonight will be both amusing and over quickly just like Chris Christie's presidential bid," he joked.

AFP-AP

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