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 Obama's comedy routine at the annual White House Correspondents'
Dinner included a sly dig at Hillary Clinton, the current
front-runner to be the Democratic candidate in the 2016 presidential
election.
Noting that some Americans are living in a time of uncertainty,
Obama said, "For example, I have one friend just a few weeks ago,
she was making millions of dollars a year and she's now living out
of a van in Iowa."
Clinton, who as a former secretary of state, former senator and
former first lady is one of America's best known figures, traveled
around in a van this month in a deliberately low-key trip to the
state that holds an early contest in the election primary season.
Obama, now in office for six years, is a polished performer at an
event that draws journalists, politicians and celebrities to a
cavernous ballroom in the Washington Hilton.
 Some of his jokes are stock, including a reference to how much his
time as president has aged him. "I look so old," he said this year,
"that John Boehner has already invited Netanyahu to speak at my
funeral."
Obama was angered when Boehner, the Republican leader of the House
of Representatives, invited Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu to speak to Congress last month against a nuclear deal
with Iran that the Obama administration was negotiating with other
world powers.
The comedian at the dinner, Cecily Strong of NBC show "Saturday
Night Live," also fired freely around the audience. Taking a jab at
some media coverage of women politicians, she had the audience
repeat after her, "I solemnly swear not to talk about Hillary's
appearance, because that is not journalism."
Strong also took aim at the Secret Service that protects Obama,
which has seen a slew of embarrassing recent bungles. Referring to a
series of deaths of black men at the hands of law enforcement that
have provoked protests around the country, she said, "They're the
only law enforcement agency that will get in trouble if a black man
gets shot."
On a serious note, Obama noted there were journalists around the
world who were unjustly imprisoned, and cited the case of Jason
Rezaian of the Washington Post, an American-Iranian who is in prison
in Iran.
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"For nine months, Jason has been imprisoned in Tehran for nothing
more than writing about the hopes and the fears of the Iranian
people," Obama said, adding that he had told Rezaian's brother Ali
that he would not rest "until we bring him home to his family safe
and sound."
The case represents a point of friction with Iran at a time when the
Obama administration is seeking with five other major powers to
conclude a nuclear deal with Tehran after reaching a framework
agreement earlier this month.
The dinner, a long-running tradition organized by the White House
Correspondents' Association, has morphed from being a relatively
low-key gathering of journalists and their sources from around town.
In recent years, media organizations have invited not just sources
but Hollywood stars and sports celebrities.
Washington has a love-hate relationship with its annual spring
party. Those who go tend to enjoy having dinner with the president,
albeit along with more than 2,600 others, seeing sources in a
semi-casual setting and mingling with celebrities.
But the dinner also draws an annual chorus of condemnation from
critics who say that laughing and partying with sources is not
conducive to hard-hitting journalism.
The dinner is actually a weekend of events - various media
organizations host pre- and post-dinner parties that give the affair
an echo of Hollywood at Oscar time.
(Writing by Frances Kerry; Editing by Michael Perry)
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