Last night, President Obama and Governor Mitt Romney set aside their contentious campaign for comedy. The candidates traded jokes at the Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner, and then President Obama made an appearance on The Daily Show.
Pete Dominick, host of the radio show Stand Up! on Sirius XM and a contributor to CNN, explains how the candidates fared from a comedian’s perspective.
Dominick thinks Romney had the better writers, but Obama gave the better performance. “I like it when President Obama is doing comedy,” Dominick says, “and he almost gives credit to the writer by laughing at the joke. That little chuckle – he’s laughing at the joke itself.”Pete Dominick thinks the best way for the candidates to win people over is by making fun of themselves. While many of Obama’s jokes focused on his lack-luster performance in the first debate, Romney mocked his own wealth. Still, Dominick says that, “Clearly Mitt Romney is more nervous in these situations than the President, who has a lot of experience with them, and seems to thrive in them.”