At the White House Correspondents' Dinner, Politics Goes to the Dogs

Uggie from "The Actor" Walks the Red Carpet.

What was the topic on everyone's minds at this weekend's White House Correspondents' Dinner? Well, dogs ofcourse.

Dogs were mentioned in speeches, were featured in video segments and even hobnobbed with celebrities at the event. In all fairness though, only one dog graced the red carpet and he is a movie star (Uggie from "The Artist"). Still, when was the last time you saw a dog at a Correspondent's Dinner?

We think most of this canine attention boils down to the fact that each presidential candidate has a rather shocking dog story in his past. For Romney, it's strapping his dog in a small kennel on top of his car for a 12-hour family road trip. For Obama, it's eating dog meat when he was a young boy in Indonesia.

Both of these stories have been repeatedly circulated through the media and have become a part of presidential lore. They are brought up every time someone wants to prove that one candidate or the other is wrong on animal rights, at least when it comes to dogs. As it has become such a trending issue on the campaign, the president made sure to address this in his speech.

For those of you unfamiliar with the Correspondents' Dinner, the president always gives a humorous speech. It's a tradition and one of the rare moments that a president may push the boundaries of what is normally acceptable. For Obama, we think he might have pushed a little too far though.

He set up a joke that was supposed to play off of his experience eating dog as a child, but it fell rather flat. After referencing Sarah Palin, he said:

"What is the difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull? A pit bull is delicious."

The joke met uncomfortable laughter and many groans and audible gasps. Even Michelle Obama looked a little nervous and shocked. We know Obama was trying to poke fun at the media frenzy that this story created, but the joke didn't seem like it was in good taste (no pun intended).

Obama didn't stop with that joke though, thankfully. He went on to some much funnier material including a fake political ad from the "Woof Pac" which we think is comedic gold. You can check it out below.

No matter what your take on politics, it's clear that dogs are getting more attention this year than ever before. We just hope that attention will translate into animal-friendly policies and not just campaign stories and jokes. How about it politicians?