Press: Adversary Relationship

Carter's stand-in flops as a stand-up comic

The $35 prix fixe seemed a bit steep, but the menu sounded impressive enough—breast of capon cordon bleu, pommes rissolées, bombe glacée—and the comic booked for the evening was strictly top banane: Jimmy Carter. For the first time in the 64 years that the White House Correspondents' Association has been inviting Presidents to its annual all-in-fun dinner, however, the incumbent did not show or send his wife or his Vice President to fill in.

Much of the White House press corps has grown increasingly unimpressed with Carter's...