Next, a look at just given by previous president s. Including president clinton. He begins by referencing travels to africa and chile. [applause] president clinton thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you, mr. Powell. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. As you know, i have been traveling to other lands quite a lot lately. I just want to say what a pleasure it is for hillary and me to be in your country. [laughter] since i live tear arrived here i have been struck by the beauty of your landscape. In the spirit of your people. The color of your native garb. The crowd to greet me here are not quite as adoring as in other nations. But they seem occasionally friendly, none the less. I have even sampled some of your indigenous cuisine. Your hamburgers. Quite tasty, sort of a meat sandwich. It appears that democracy is arriving here. There are regular elections contested with vigor. Honored by some. [laughter] [applause] president clinton any legislature in the legislature, persistent coup attempts have so far failed to upend the balance of power. You have a lively press confident in its judgment and bold in its protections. Protestant persistent, i might add. Hillary and i will never forget our visit here. As i have come to do on these tours, i want to take a few minutes to reflect on our shared history. The past decades indeed centuries, are filled with regrettable incidents. Mistakes were made. In justices were committed. Certainly, the passive tense was used too much. Ladies, i regret so much, hourlong neglect of the planet pluto. It took until 1930 two welcome pluto into the community of planet. That it was wronwas wrong. I am so sorry. [applause] president clinton that whole era of leisure suits and beanbag chairs. We had to in your the cheesiness of the 70s we had to endure the cheesiness of the 1970s and that was wrong. And then there was an bfthe Susan B Anthony dollar. It looks too much like a quarter, and that was wrong. The expression, happy campers. It was cute the first couple of times and it got old really fast. I recently used it at a cabinet meeting, and that was wrong. Pineapple on pizza. Some things are just wrong. I would like to also, in this moment of cleansing take just a moment to reflect on past treatment of the White House Press corps. I apologize for the quality of the free food you have been served over the years. Thatyou deserve better. It was wrong. For many years, when the space that is now the Briefing Room in the white house was a Swimming Pool reporters had to tread water for hours on end. That was wrong. Sort of. I would really like to apologize or all the information you have had to attribute to Anonymous Sources over the years. Of course that apology has to be off the record. Were that, i am truly sorry. Now that we have put the issues of the past behind us, i really would like to thank you for inviting me to the nice dinner. Its is a night i get to poke fun at you. That is my definition of executive privilege. I am at a bit of a disadvantage this year. I have been so busy, i have no ready newspaper or magazine since the pope to cuba went to cuba. [applause] president clinton what have you been writing about since then . I hardly have any time to read the news. Mostly i just skim the retractions. I have even stopped watching mccurrys briefing. He never answers a single question. I dont know how you put up with it. I have told him again and again you can answer any question he wants. What his he told you . Seriously, i have been looking forward to seeing all of you this weekend. I want to know one thing. How come there is no table for salon magazine . That is supposed to be funny. Dont take yourself so seriously. You will see the light. Dont worry about it. Loosen up. One of the things i like about this dinner, as it as it is, it is smaller and more intimate than the white house pundits dinner. I dont have anything against political pundits. Some of my best friends used to be political pundits and some political pun used to be my best friends pundits used to be my best friends. I am here to warm the audience up for ray romano. I feel ambivalent about it. He is us the star of a show called, Everybody Loves raymond. I cannot stand a guy with 100 approval. I want to come congratulate the winners. I would like to Say Something to mike, now that you have won this will work, i think you should slow down and work less read enjoy the finer things in life. Intoand to ron, he is the only person who came to washington with me is not in subpoenaed. But the night is still young. I am happy to see peter mayer is getting an award for his excellent work. I was worried, since he was nearly mauled by a cheetah on our africa trip, he ought to be given the purple heart. Come on, could you write a joke peter mayer . It was reported that Sam Donaldson scared away elephants with his to stink the voice. That is not fair. Elephants are smart. They knew he works for disney. They thought he was trying to round them up for a new theme park. This has been an extraordinary few months. No wonder you have been swarming around. There is nothing to cover on capitol hill. Listen to this. All over, tv executives are asking, what can possibly fill the gaping hole on thursday night once seinfeld goes off the air . I got it. Congress on cspan. There is a show about nothing. [laughter] not that there is anything wrong with that. There is nothing wrong with that. There are beardarely 40 days in the 10 fifth congress. This is congress with nothing to do and nothing to do it in. One news item coming out, i met with the senator to decide who should be the next sting which member of congress hurled into the our reaches of the universe. We have our man. Godspeed, diggck armey. On tuesday, speaker gingrich is holding a press conference to proclaim tony the tiger is not selling frosted flakes to children. Last week, he said the movie titanic glorified smoking. I cannot believe it. This week, he will accuse it of glorifying drowning. Its funny if you think about it. For all of you who do not live in washington, this is a unique and unsettling moment in washington. I am not the only one who is anxiously awaiting the release of steve brills new magazine. I have an advanced copy. It is called,content. Why would anyone want to call a magazine that . Mccurry says, it is called contentcontent. Why would anybody want to call it that . You might be interested in what is going to be the first edition. I have it here, the table of contents. Makeover tips. By john king. George mitchell writes about the prospects of lasting peace between Barbara Walters and diane sawyer. Six recipes for harvest burgers by david brinkley. A retrospective, cbs news from her he got what he deserved. By maureen dowd. He was an article called waiting in the wings cowritten by all gore and brian williams. I think they are both going to make it. Here is lenny daviss review of spin cycle. He liked it. I have to say one thing. This book implies the coop kabuki dance between the white house and the press is a recent phenomenon. It is a cherished phenomena in our history. I had the National Archives send over transcribes to make this point. There is good from the hoover institution. Housing starts were up in the Third Quarter of 1931. These hoover bills reflect a commitment to private initiative. The president is proud they bear his name. In 1814, a white house official disputed the idea that the burning of the white house was a setback for the medicine administration. Madison administration. Yes, fire consumed the mansion but it was in need of renovation anyway and this effort by the british aids us time and taxpayer money. Here is one from the jefferson administration. A spokesman for buys president aaron burr Vice President aaron burrus asserted, people do not kill people. Guns kill people. We back in 1773, a spokesman for samuel adams asserted the Boston Tea Party was not a fundraiser. No one paid to attend. There was no quid pro quo. It was just a town meeting for colonists to get to know each other and discuss details of the new tax law. We have an at this a long time. Helen hunt to know. Helen ought to know. She was there. Let me say one serious. Helen thomas is not just the longestserving white house responded. One reason she got the award is she is still the hardest working. The first to show up every morning about 5 00. Five days a week for nearly 40 years. And i daresay, tonight is time she has been completely scooped. By mike hanke cancellation, she had about 10,000 mornings, thousands of notebooks ballpoint pens, cups of coffee sometimes brought to her by staffers. Never has it come from i stir yet. For compromised her yet. For us, she is a rock. A symbol of everything american journalism can and should. The embodiment of fearless integrity. The insistence on Holding Government accountable. All of that on the spirit of the free press. By tradition, you always get to ask the first question at the press conference. To honor the tradition, you can ask me anything you want. Remember, and in even older tradition, i dont have to answer. Thank you and good night. [applause] president george w. Bush first attended the Correspondents Dinner in 2001 where he presented a slide show of the bush family including pictures of his father mother, and siblings going up. [applause] president bush thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you, arlene. I am delighted to be here with all the major leaguers. Tonight, i decided to do something different. My mother over the years has put together at least 70 scrap books about our life as a family. What i have done is full of the actual pull out some of the actual never before seen photos from these scrapbooks and create a little slideshow. Gordon, if everybodys cell phones are turned off, you can hit the lights. Tonight, i present a bush family album. What you may not realize is i grew up at a time in Texas History when it was still a rough and tumble frontier. We were ranchers back then. This was my favorite horse. He was surefooted, steady. I trusted that horse totally. Heres the weird part. His name was dick cheney. But times were hard back then. [laughter] president bush this was during the great drought of 1953. Dad, and the rest of us. My family with those kids in the tub, it is not arsenic in the water i would be worried about. Personally i have always preferred a private bath. This is my actual first grade report card. It says, george w. Bush. Notice the final grades on the right. Writing, a. Reading, a. Music, a. Art, a. My advice is, dont peak too early. [laughter] [applause] president bush here i am with my fit rate science project fifthgrade science project. Bolted myself. It is still meeting our energy needs. I went on to college and graduate school. Somehow, the press has gotten the wrong idea that i was a smart alec party guy. This is an unfair perception. In college, i did a lot of independent reading. After graduation, i joined the Texas Air National guard. I am the one who committed the state of texas to defend taiwan from attack. [applause] speaking of pilots, i am proud to honor a lieutenant. [applause] president bush i hope you and your crew will be coming to the white house soon. I know you will like it there. I said this personally but i am proud to say it publicly. Welcome back lieutenant. Some people wondered, and im sure there might have in a few out here, how i would handle the recent incident in china. The truth is, i have long been a serious student of the orient. My mom and dad of course were in china when dad was the liaison there. People ask me, is a difficult to follow in the footsteps of a man who was president and Vice President , you and investor, un ambassador . Is it hard been such a mans son . Not really. [laughter] most people dont realize it, but that has had some tough times. Dad has had some of times. Back in the 1950s, he went through a time when he thought aliens were trying to contact him so he built this contraption to receive their signals. As for my mom after bearing six children, she herself became a bit stressed. [applause] she took to acting strangely. For while, she thought she was too tall and walked like this. As if that werent strange enough she wrote a book with that dog. I hated that dog. My mother treated the dog better than she treated me. She never to me right my book write my book. I will say this however. My mom always stuck up for us kids. Here she is responding to a reporters question about something Barbra Streisand said recently. Fortunately, i have great brothers and a sister. Some have asked if the vote recount left any hard feelings between my brother jeff and me. Jeb and me. Not a bit. In fact, heres a picture of the governor of florida. [laughter] [applause] president bush this brings me to a serious point. Eventually, i met a woman named laura. She changed my life. She has given me as an adult i enjoy as a child. That is a loving family. The defining moments are not when my father was elected president or when i was elected president. The defining moments have been telling moments. Family moments. I have been blessed with a family full of love, and i pray the same for you. Good evening. [applause] the following year, present bush continued the slideshow theme by showing candid shares from the white house photographer chronicling his first year in office. [applause] president bush thank you. Thank you very much. 8 . Lthank you very5 much. Mr. Vice president. Members of the white house correspondentsz0z association. Ladies andhz gentlemen. Zn 0xp0 rlaura and i are honored to be here. Thank you for the invitation. [applause] president bush what a fantastic audience we have tonight. Washington powerbrokers. Celebrities. Hollywood stars. Ozzy osbourne. [applauspresident bush ok, ozzy. Might have been a mistake. The thing about himcuz z is he has made a lot of the kitnz z recordings j big hit recording. Xpparty with the animals. yseven, bloody sabbath. bloodbath in paradise. Mom loves your stuff. [applause] drew carey is our entertainment tonight. He has a fun tv show called whose line is it anyway. Drew, do you have any interest in the middle east . Last year at this dinner, i showed some photos straight out of the bush family photo album. Tonight, im going to show you some actual never seen before photos taken by the white house photographers over the past 15 months. We have created just for you this little slideshow. What life is really like inside the bush white house. If everyone is in the seats you have assigned them, karen hit the projector. When i look back to the last year, i have grown in office. I am more focused. I feel relaxed. Occasionally, there are moments where i heal a little stressed. [laughter] i may have aged a bit. One of the great things about being in the white house is having laura close by. Whenever she drops by, my day is nice. She helps me in a million ways. Here she is helping me pronounce azerbaijanis. We have to bring dogs two dogs. This is our dog, barney. I tell him when i rose that, he ought to be a senator with eyebrows like that, he odd to be a senator. He been telling you is in trouble here. This is the day he chewed up the list of undisclosed locations and we cannot find dick. The little guy keeps a lookout like this, our after our. Hour after hour. Kind of wish tom ridge had ever had that talk with him about homeland security. This is our dog spot. People asked me how i came up with the name. I dont know, i am just kind of a creative guy. The thing about spot she is the president. The thing about spot is, she thinks she is the president. Here she is coming back from a fundraiser for the american kennel club. She is truly a great canine american. I value her counsel just as i do the others on the staff. We have a very experienced mature team of professionals down here at the white house. This is josh. He is the white house the beauties deputy chief of staff. America should sleep better knowing this column, levelheaded man is helping to guide our nation. As nick calio this is nick calio, the head of legislative affairs. I said what are the chances of the Senate Passing anwar . Nick really prepares me well when congressional leaders come from meetings. Syrias, testing out a what the question here he is, testing out a cushion. We have a motivated group. No matter what the task at hand each gives 100 . The truth is. The door to the oval office has a little peek hole. This is karen hughes, peeping on me. This is karl rove. This is condi rice. Spot has her own peephole. This is andy card. And ladies and gentlemen this is the Vice President of the United States looking through a peephole. Dick, i hope you are not doing what it looks like you are doing. [applause] president bush this photo has nothing to do with anything. I thought it would i would show it to you because it is the only known photo off Alan Greenspan smiling. This is ari flesher. I was chewing him out here. I am saying, i am sick and tired of you not fully answering all the wonderful questions asked by our hardworking press corps. Are you sure . We are not leaking enough. Have we given them enough access to me . I have an idea. I will do more interviews. With baseball tonight. Part of the job of a president is to meet with representatives of special interest groups. Here i am meeting with representatives from the american cloning counsel. I try to work with republicans and democrats alike. For political reasons, some prefer it not be known they are working with a republican president , so they sleep in the back door. Like Hillary Clinton here slip in the backdoor like Hillary Clinton here. It is not all work of course. One day, i decided to show some of the staff the white house bowling alley. Boys and girls there is a reason you where those special shoes. [laughter] of course, another job of the president is dealing with the press corps. You ask tough questions but to tell you the truth, i dont you have laid a glove on me. Here i am at the last press conference. In closing, i thought about turning serious. Talking about all we have been through since i was last here. Then i decided, this was not the time or place. You came to have a good time. We have to carry waiting to entertain us. Instead, we have drew carey waiting to entertain us. Instead, i will leave you with one last photo of our dog spot. I ask you, is this