Eric Schnure on White House Correspondents' Association Dinner

April 30, 2010

DSG's Eric Schnure was featured in an ABC News piece on this weekend's White House Correspondents' Association Dinner:

Eric Schnure, a veteran political speechwriter and comedy writer, said that one direction Obama could go is to play off of the recent reports about tense relations between the White House and the reporters who cover it.

"That's safe ground for him to joke about because it touches folks in the audience and it allows him to be self-deprecating, which obviously works so well in these events," Schnure said.

Sure, Obama could go too far - a joke last year about the gathered reporters all voting for him fell a bit flat, perhaps because it hit too close to home to a sensitive press corps.

"That's the secret to all humor, isn't it? Doing that delicate dance," Schnure said. "Finding the right tone and the right balance. I would think that without touching on that or acknowledging that, it because a bit obvious in its absence."

Such routines require a significant amount of preparation, rehearsal and guts. So why do politicians ever agree to do this? Why take a chance at jokes falling flat and routines bombing?

"There is a tradition to doing these things, a prestige to do these kinds of events," Schnure said. "I think the driving force is that politicians are in the business of having people like them and it's not as much getting laughs as it is being liked."

Schnure said that even with a potentially cynical crowd like the Washington press corps, it is still a crowd that wants to see the president pull off a successful comedy bit.