Colbert-- the full video

Thanks to PS for the link. There's still plenty of talk about Colbert's appearance at the White House correspondents dinner, and with good reason. Here's a chance to see the whole enchilada, which you really need to do.

The right-wing blogs are grousing about it in the ways you'd expect-- lauding Bush's carefully calculated regular Joe routine and the press for their courteous and plentiful laughter. But as pretty much everyone else acknowledges, Colbert's monologue didn't elicit belly laughs from the crowd because it pointed out their awful shortcomings over the last five years.

Also, as many bloggers have noted, the press has largely ignored Colbert's role in the event. Hardly a surprise.

UPDATE: Although the video has a much better resolution than the link I first posted, it does end before Laura Bush's apparent snub of Colbert. On the other hand, it's more clear that after Bush shakes Colbert's hand, his face immediately goes all grim-- as though he forgot the cameras were on. Also, some of the audience members who appeared to be thouroughly unamused by Colbert are actually hiding some smiles behind their hands. But that was before he started ripping the Beltway press.

Finally, Media Matters has a wry follow-up that points out the mainstream media's fairly common reporting of Don Imus' attacks on the first family during his correspondents dinner appearance a decade ago. I've long avoided using terms like "corporate media" because it's the sort of phrase that causes people to immediately think "Ah ha! Radical leftie!" (In spite of the fact that 'I don't trust the liberal media' bumper stickers have been around for more than a decade.) But is there any other way to accurately describe what we're seeing? It clearly isn't about respect for the man or the office, or matters of decorum. Potshots at the personal life of a Democratic president were A-OK, while needling a Republican president for his policies ist verboten. Simple as that.