Reviews of the First Lady’s stand-up routine at the White House Correspondents Dinner keep pouring in. John Tierney gives it two thumbs up. Wlady Pleszczynski hated it. The Washington Post rounds up more reaction and there’s a spirited debate over at Lucianne.com.

I’ll have a bit more to say related to this in my column tomorrow, but here’s my quick two cents: I love Laura Bush because of her natural charm and unaffected style. “Grace” is a word that had not been synonymous with “First Lady” for many years. Anyone who has watched Mrs. Bush in action–she was lovely on Jay Leno’s show about a week ago, cracking easy jokes about Bush and baseball–already knows she has a brain to match her grace. No need to go out of her way to prove it.

Most of Mrs. Bush’s humor at the correspondents’ dinner was just right: Edgy but not over the edge. But I think the stripper and horse jokes were totally beneath her.

Just put it to the other-shoe test: If it were Teresa Heinz Kerry standing up on the dais telling the same jokes, the conservative commentariat would be buzzing for the rest of the year about what a tasteless skank she is.

“Lighten up?” How about cleaning up? The First Lady resorting to cheap horse masturbation jokes is not much better than Whoopi Goldberg trafficking in dumb puns on the Bush family name. Unlike many Beltway and Manhattan commentators, I do not think the Wonkette-ization of the White House is a good thing.

Update: Strong feedback on both sides. One common response: “Hey, Malkin! LIGHTEN UP! The horse joke is a variation of an old bull joke. It’s old.” So, it’s an old joke. So what? Doesn’t mean the FIRST LADY should be telling it. Anyway, I thought she pushed her husband off the stage to stop him from telling old jokes (”Not that old joke, Not again!”).

A sample from the mailbag…

I agree completely, and wish Mrs. Bush had been more Red Skelton and less Joan Rivers.

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I have always admired Laura Bush for being a lady of class. Nothing stood out in more stark contrast in last year’s election than the comparision between her and her opposite number.

I guess that I am old-fashioned, but I have always felt that a First Lady needs to be a Lady first. To use those kind of jokes cheapens her.

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I guess some people would consider your overuse of makeup a vulgar display better left to the worlds oldest profession. Its all relative. Fortunately, most people do not think that a 50 year old farm joke needs to be “cleaned” up. I used to also think it was just liberals and leftists that had a
problem with logical comparisons. I stand corrected.

Update II: 5/4 column is now up here.

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