Association Dinner
The annual spring fling between the Washington press corps and Beltway power brokers - also known as the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner - takes over the Washington Hilton on Saturday (6 p.m. Eastern, C-Span and streaming).
The formal affair began in 1920 as a way for reporters to dine with their sources and get them to spill the beans. Calvin Coolidge was the first president to attend, in 1924, and each one since has participated. The dinners had their first brush with star power in 1987, when Michael Kelly, a Baltimore Sun reporter, brought along Fawn Hall, who was in the national limelight at the time for her role as an assistant to Oliver L. North during the Iran-contra scandal. News organizations have since competed to invite famous, or infamous, guests to join them. Today, the gala is Hollywood's big night in Washington, and it is followed by lavish, corporate-sponsored soirees. In 2006, the comedian Stephen Colbert gave one of the most memorable keynote speeches, as he relentlessly mocked President George W. Bush and the news media. Delivered in what was then his persona as a conservative pundit, the 20-minute routine became a sensation online. On Saturday, it will be his old Comedy Central colleague Larry Wilmore's turn.
It looks like Trump is on his way to 1,237 but not without obstacle along the way. Last night, hundreds of demonstrators blocked traffic outside a venue in California where he was holding a rally. The question is ... Who organized the demonstration? How desperate are the Republicans to get rid of him? Trump and other candidates are speaking at the California Republican Convention today and on into the weekend. Like NY, Calif. is not a quiet town with celebs taking sides and making fun of everything. The funniest one-liner this week ... former House Speaker John Boehner called Ted Cruz "Lucifer in the flesh." Yes, indeed ... even politicians have a sense of humor and enjoy a good tweet from time to time !!
Didn't that happen when the Pope was here?
Do you ever wonder what would have happened if Biden ran for President?
Back in D.C., Obama offered Israel the largest package of military aid the U.S. has ever proposed to any nation, but the Israelis are asking for more. The package, possibly more than $40 billion over 10 years, is meant to replace the current aid of about $3 billion a year. We should be spending our money to rebuild our own military and then think about how we can help our allies. No wonder this country is falling apart we are just two diverse and though I'm not exactly an isolationist - I still believe that we have to fix our problems before we can help others.
Voters in Colorado will decide in November whether to create a taxpayer-financed public health system that would guarantee coverage for everyone and drop President Obama's health care policy. The $38-billion-a-year proposal, to be financed with a tax increase on workers and businesses, would do away with deductibles and would allow patients to choose doctors and specialists without worrying about who is 'in network.'
Business: U.S. economic growth in the first quarter fell to its slowest pace in two years, while the job market appears to be at its healthiest point since the late 1990s. There are many theories about why this occurred with websites like CNBC staying on top of things. The eurozone's gross domestic product is back to pre-financial-crisis levels, according to data released today.
