McCain and Obama Roast Each Other at Al Smith Dinner

And here's Obama:

Comments

[Daniel]

McCain was far better than Obama...if his campaign had let him be himself the way the whole time the race would be closer, I feel. Best line from Obama: "Barack is Swahili for 'That One.'"

[Gretchen]

I'm not sure what video you watched, but Obama's delivery is much better and he was absolutely hilarious.

[Abbas Raza]

I liked both of them a lot. It was so nice to see them in this mode. I think it's the first time I've heard Obama laugh. He really is "too awesome!" It was good to see McCain being so gracious for once, too.

The other nice thing was that I can't imagine another country where such bitter rivals would take a bit of time to poke good-natured fun at each other. Can you imagine, for example, two German politicians doing this? I love that Americans have such an immense sense of humor. About everything. The Daily Show and Steven Colbert do not exist in Italy, where I live, and nor can my wife (who knows Europe much better than I) imagine them existing in any mainland European country.

This did make me like McCain. At least for a little while.

[d]

McCain was much better. He can go on tour with Don Rickles when he loses in a few weeks.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ALHiadIsKo

[Marco]

McCain was funny -- good writing. Towards the middle, he was just repeating his campaign attack ads, which wasn't really funny at all. He stayed in the traditional roast format by aiming almost everything at Obama directly. The kind of funny where you first have to stop yourself from being offended, then admit that it was technically very clever.

Obama was also funny, but mostly self-deprecatng or roasting from two degrees away (e.g. he made fun of McCain's ridiculous accusations against Obama instead of McCain directly). Also extremely good writing. Another good line was: "Who would have thought that Rudy Giuliani, a cross-dressing former mayor of New York, would have trouble getting the Republican nomination ... tough primary season you had there, John".