Presidential Candidates Take Time Out for Laughs and Charity
I was surprised last weekend when I came across Senator’s Barack Obama poking fun at themselves on You Tube. They were speaking at the 63rd Annual Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner held at The Waldorf-Astoria hotel in New York last Friday.
This political season has seen Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, John McCain and most recently Sarah Palin participate in Saturday Night Live sketches. There has been discussion over whether this is blurring the lines between entertainment and news. The Alfred E. Smith dinners show a long history of candidates that have used comedy to show case their sense of humor.
McCain appeared as a natural comedian. Perhaps it is his underdog status that allowed him to perform so well in a humorous setting. His jokes began with “Events are moving fast in my campaign and yes its true that this morning I dismissed my entire team of senior advisers, all of their positions will now be held by a man named Joe The Plumber,” which was followed by laughter throughout the room.
Obama’s scripted jokes were funny, but he did not seem as at ease making fun of himself and his opponent. Obama’s jokes included “It is an honor to be here with Al Smith. I obviously never knew your great grandfather, but from everything John McCain has told me to the two of them had a great time together before prohibition.” His act was a string of singular jokes that were all quite funny, but did not flow as smoothly as McCain’s.
Obama even touched on his middle name, which has drawn political attention over the past few weeks, saying “Many of you know that I got my name, Barack, from my father, but what you may not know is that Barack is actually Swahili for That One. And I got my middle name from somebody who obliviously didn’t think I would ever run for president.”
The dinners were started by Archbishop (later Cardinal) Francis J. Spellman of the Archdiocese of New York in 1945. Spellman used the fact that Gov. Smith died in October, the peak of the election season to remind people of Smith’s political service and attract political leaders to speak at the dinner. Speakers have included, Lyndon B. Johnson Tony Blair, Colin Powell and more.
Alfred E. Smith was elected Governor of New York four times and was the Democratic presidential candidate in 1928. He lost to Herbert Hoover and then became president of the Empire State, Inc., where he was instrumental in getting the Empire State Building built during the Great Depression. He has been honored at an ongoing series of dinners since his death in 1944 that brings political leaders on stage in a comedic forum, sponsored by the Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation.
The mission of the foundation is to support and aids the poor, sick, and underprivileged of the Archdiocese of New York, regardless of race, creed, or color. The money raised during the dinner funds planning and implementation grants designed for one- to three-year programs, with the expectation that the project will either be completed within that time frame or will find some other source of financial support, and programmatic project grants for efforts of a one year duration that have no other source of financial support. according to the Alfred E. Smith Foundation’s release of activities.
*Read Alfred E. Smith’s obituary in the New York Times from 1944 here: http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/bday/1230.htm