Bitter presidential rivals Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump have one more face-to-face showdown before Election Day. And they’re supposed to make it funny.
The venue just 24 hours after their third and final debate is the annual Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner in New York, a white-tie gala that every four years becomes a showcase for presidential politics. Tradition dictates that the candidates deliver humorous remarks poking fun at each other and themselves, a jovial custom that seems hard to envision amid such an ugly campaign. Trump regularly calls Clinton, “Crooked Hillary,” mocks her stamina and says he’d put her in jail if he wins the presidency. Clinton says he lives in his own reality, is running a “hateful, divisive campaign” and lacks the temperament to be president.
They will sit just one seat apart for the evening, with New York’s Cardinal Timothy Dolan acting as the only buffer.
“I certainly expect that the dinner will be what it’s always been: an opportunity for two candidates to put aside partisan politics for the evening,” said Joseph Zwilling, the spokesman for the Archdiocese of New York, which hosts the dinner. “I anticipate that we will have good humor and civility that this dinner has been always been known for.”
The unprecedentedly bitter campaign between Clinton and Trump could threaten the ecumenical goodwill that has defined previous roasts. Since 1960, at least one of the major party nominees has appeared at nearly every election year dinner, which is traditionally the last time the nominees share a stage before voters go to the polls.
Four years ago, President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney set aside their differences to trade (mostly) warm jokes. Romney, scanning the well-heeled crowd in the gilded Waldorf-Astoria ballroom, joked that the event’s white-tie attire finally gave him a chance to publicly don what “Ann and I wear around the house.” Obama, meanwhile, used his speech that year to look ahead to an upcoming debate on foreign policy, previewing his argument by saying “Spoiler alert: we got Bin Laden.”
Trump will speak first Thursday night, then Clinton. Neither campaign opted to preview their candidate’s remarks and aides for both declined comment on the evening other than to confirm that each nominee will be there.
The evening might feel familiar to Trump, who infamously glowered through Obama’s jokes at his expense during the 2011 White House Correspondents Dinner and is not known for being self-deprecating. Last weekend, he tweeted that he did not appreciate Saturday Night Live’s portrayal of him in a sendup of the candidates’ performances in the second presidential debate.
This is the first time that both party’s nominees hail from New York State as a crowd of about 1,500 gathers for the distinctly Gotham event, held each October. Attendees pay between $3,000 and $15,000 to attend the dinner, which raises about $5 million to provide services for impoverished children, Zwilling said.
The dinner is named after the former New York governor, who was the first Catholic to receive a major party nomination for president when he unsuccessfully ran in 1928. And fittingly for an event named after a man nicknamed “The Happy Warrior,” the occasion has produced dozens of memorable presidential jokes.
In 2000, then-Texas Governor George W. Bush gazed upon the glitzy gathering and declared: “This is an impressive crowd, the haves and the have-mores. Some people call you the elite. I call you my base.”
That same year, Vice President Al Gore touted his campaign trail ability to weave in stories “of real people in the audience and their everyday challenges.”
“Like the woman here tonight whose husband is about to lose his job,” Gore continued. “She’s struggling to get out of public housing and get a job of her own. Hillary Clinton, I want to fight for you.”
And in 2008, John McCain joked about the exalted manner in which the media venerated Obama, noting that “‘Maverick’ I can do, but ‘Messiah’ is above my pay grade.” But he wound down his remarks with a note of grace that, to this point, has been largely absent from the 2016 campaign.
“I can’t wish my opponent luck,” McCain said, turning toward Obama, “but I do wish him well.”
The Associated Press contributed to this article.
DEAR CLINTON-LOVING MILLENIELS, many of whom live off their parents:
You are about to lose your financial support system, because parents are scheduled to die under Heil-Hit-Liar-y, READ ON…….
Pay SPECIAL ATTENTION to pages 58 & 59
WELL, WELL, WELL….WE KNEW THIS WAS COMING…HOW MANY PEOPLE KNEW THIS???
Obama held all of this until his term was almost over. The fee also for Medicare goes up something
close to $237
a month per person starting next year.
IMPORTANT ACTION INFORMATION FOR NOVEMBER, 2016, VOTE Medicare at age
76!
If you don’t read this, and do nothing about it, don’t complain when it affects you or your loved ones! This is the second Judge to have read the Obama Care
document comments. More highlights of Nancy’s “pass it and then find out what’s in the bill”! Show this to everyone nearing the ripe old age of 76. These are just a few of the things that we seniors are going to have to deal with which started in 2014.
MEDICARE AT AGE 76, IMPORTANT PLEASE READ – ANYONE WHO DOUBTS THIS IS TRUE CAN DOWNLOAD THE NEW OBAMACARE AND LOOK UP THE PAGES
MENTIONED. THIS IS JUST THE BEGINNING….
THIS should be read by everyone, especially important to those over 75……. If you are younger, then it may apply to your parents. Your hospital
Medicare admittance has just changed under ObamaCare.
You must be admitted by your primary Physician in order for Medicare to pay for it! If you are admitted by an emergency room doctor,
it is treated as outpatient care where hospital costs are not covered.
This is only the tip of the iceberg for Obama Care.
Just wait to see what else went into effect in 2014. YOU
ARE NOT GOING TO LIKE THIS… At
age 76, when you most need it most, you are NOT eligible
for cancer
treatment…
* see page 272. What Nancy Pelosi didn’t want us to know
until after the healthcare bill was passed. Remember, she
said, “We have to pass the Bill so that we can see what’s in
it.” Well,
here it is.
Obama Care Highlighted by Page Number THE CARE BILL HB 3200 JUDGE KITHIL IS THE 2ND OFFICIAL WHO HAS OUTLINED THESE PARTS OF THE CARE BILL.
Judge KITHIL of Marble Falls, TX highlighted the most egregious pages of HB3200. Please read this…… especially the reference to pages 58 & 59. JUDGE KITHIL
wrote:
Page 50/section 152: The
bill will provide insurance to all non-U.S. residents, even if they are here illegally.
Page 58 and 59: The
government will have real-time access to an individual’s bank account and will have the authority to make electronic fund transfers from those accounts.
Page 65/section 164: The plan will be subsidized (by the
government) for all union members, union retirees and for
community organizations (such as the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now – ACORN).
Page 203/line 14-15: The
tax imposed under this section will not be treated as a tax. (How could anybody in their right mind come up with that?)
Page 241 and 253: Doctors will all be paid the same regardless of specialty, and the government will set all doctors’ fees.
Page 272. section 1145: Cancer
hospital will ration
care according to the patient’s age.
Page 317 and 321: The government will impose a prohibition on hospital expansion; however, communities may petition for an exception.
Page 425, line 4-12: The
government mandates advance-care planning consultations. Those on Social Security will be required to attend an “end-of-life planning” seminar every five years. (Death counseling..)
Page 429, line 13-25: The
government will specify
which doctors can write an end-of-life order.
HAD ENOUGH???? Judge Kithil then goes on to identify:
“Finally, it is specifically stated that this bill will not apply to members of Congress.
No wonder they did not see the need to read it….doesn’t apply to them!!! THE
AMERICAN PEOPLE NEED TO STAND UP TO WASHINGTON
…..
Winds Of Change — is
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