Dan Froomkin is out-of-touch with the mainstream Americans who get bitten by sharks and go to NASCAR races and Washington journalism award shows:

As the Bush presidency staggers to an end, it’s hard to say who has less to brag about: the president or the journalists who cover him. So it’s fitting that the last White House Correspondents’ Association dinner of the Bush era — the ultimate celebration of chumminess between the most powerful people in the world and those who are supposed to hold them accountable — was a dispiriting, mostly humorless affair.

President Bush phoned in his appearance, uttering a few topical one-liners but leaning primarily on greatest-hits footage from previous performances — and wrapping up with a cartoonish but crowd-pleasing “conducting” of the Marine band.

Comedian Craig Ferguson essentially apologized in advance for his understated headlining performance — a far cry from the withering diatribe delivered by Stephen Colbert two years ago. [...]

In the audience at the dinner and at its endless pre- and post-parties, a fin-de-siecle degeneracy was on full display. Throngs surrounded aging professional floozy Pamela Anderson, a guest of Bloomberg, who happily posed for countless photos in a dress that exposed the preponderance of her two most outstanding achievements. Key members of the White House’s torture-management team– Cheney, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, former secretary of state Colin Powell — along with leading torture apologists — Attorney General Michael Mukasey, CIA Director Michael Hayden, former White House spokesman Tony Snow and current spokeswoman Dana Perino — were fawned over as honored guests.

In one of his few winning lines, Bush made this astute observation: “Pamela Anderson and Mitt Romney in the same room? Isn’t that one of the signs of the apocalypse?” At the end of his speech, the man who waged war against the press received a standing ovation from the conquered.

 Broderella is not amused.