Last night was the annual Gridiron club dinner in Washington, DC where I'm told President's come equipped with a speech filled with jokes about themselves and their political opponents. Last night, President Obama took some time to poke fun at his golf game, John Boehner's tan and a chunk of the Republican presidential field. It's worth highlighting here, because even if they were phrased as very funny jokes the underlying narrative about each of the 2012 Republican candidates is what you'll hear from Democrats in the coming year.
Speaking of Republican exploratory activities -- (laughter) -- we have quite a few considering presidential candidacies. Of course, there’s our outstanding speaker for the evening, Mitch Daniels. (Applause.) Did a great job.
Mitch, I heard your friends over at FOX News told you that you don't look like a President. But I wouldn't worry about it -- they say the same thing about me every single day. (Laughter.) I know some people discount Mitch because he’s not -- as they say in the NBA -- long enough. (Laughter.) But the don't realize how scrappy he is. I watched him during dinner. He tore into that fillet like it was a public employee. (Laughter and applause.) And Mitch is experienced. Before he was governor Mitch was a pharmaceutical executive and he was George W. Bush’s budget director. I don't have a joke here. I just want to point it out. (Laughter and applause.)
To all the journalists in case you didn’t know. (Laughter.) Haley Barbour is here. And I want to thank him for working with Michelle on the “Let’s Move” campaign. I do have one thing to clear up, though, Haley. You know, when Michelle said, you need to run, she didn’t mean for President. (Laughter and applause.) I wanted to be clear about that.
Tim Pawlenty is not here. But he’s hard on the campaign trail. To be honest, I think the American people are going to have some tough questions for Tim -- specifically, who are you? (Laughter.) And where did you come from? (Laughter.) Which is okay -- two years into my presidency and I'm still getting those questions. (Laughter.) But I have to say, as much as I admire Haley, Mitch, Tim, all the others, I'm a little biased towards my dear, dear friend, Jon Huntsman. (Laughter.)
In fact, I was just telling the Des Moines Register, nobody has done more for my administration than Jon Huntsman. (Laughter.) As his good friends in China might say, he is truly the yin to my yang. (Laughter.) And I'm going to make sure that every primary voter knows it. (Laughter.) If there’s a fish fry for Jon Huntsman in Cedar Rapids, guess who’s going to be at the grill. (Laughter.)
Barack Obama. (Laughter and applause.) If you see me on the streets of Nashua, wearing my parka and waving a sign, give me a honk for Huntsman. (Laughter.) The next GOP nominee for President. Love that guy. (Laughter.) All these jokes are in good fun. (Laughter.) They’re all in the spirit of bipartisanship, a spirit that's sweeping the nation. (Laughter.)
We're seeing people with strong disagreements get along as never before. You have the former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, current Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney -- working together every day, sharing a host body. (Laughter.) It’s inspiring. (Laughter.) Or creepy. (Laughter.) Depending on how you look at it. (Laughter.)