At this year's White House Correspondents Dinner, many attempts at humor were successful.

Well, at least they succeeded in distracting the media and the public from the current state of our country. Ha, ha — that's hilarious!

Seriously, as wonderful as is to see that George W. Bush can make fun of himself almost as much as we do, and that Stephen Colbert is still ripping on the President's relationship with the media, things still feel more or less … glossed over? And an intro line in the New York Times like "It was love at first sight" under a monkey-suited Dubya staring longingly at the image of another him only further muddles the conflicts between the press and the government.

As the 2,500-plus guests at the annual event know, by tradition the president is supposed to make fun of himself in an effort to establish his regular-guy credentials and ingratiate himself with the press.

With his approval ratings in the mid-30's and a White House beset by troubles, there is some evidence that Mr. Bush worked harder on his performance this year than in the past.

Just what we need to be focusing on right now — Bush's regular-guy "performance" acted out with the intention of sweetening up reporters and faux media member George Clooney. Whatever, we'll be over it in like 20 minutes. But when the government claims ownership of the news media a'la Vladimir Putin, we hope everyone remembers the good old days when we sat around and laughed at our President's insolence and Jossip said "we told you it's not that funny."

A New Set of Bush Twins Appear at Annual Correspondents' Dinner [Elisabeth Bumiller, New York Times]
Colbert Lampoons Bush at White House Correspondents Dinner — President Not Amused? [Editor & Publisher]
Cocktail Chatter With Clooney, Plame, Snow at D.C. Bash [Editor & Publisher]
Earlier: White House Correspondents Dinner Correspondence