For 79 years, the Al Smith Memorial Foundation dinner at New York’s Waldorf Astoria hotel has featured the leading candidates of each party for a lighthearted night of political roasting – of themselves, each other, and other celebrities, politicians, and dignitaries in attendance. All of the proceeds go to benefit Catholic Charities, and the evening usually is a lot of fun.
This is not the first go-round for Donald Trump at these dinners, and he’s had a mixed track record on his performances there over the years. In 2016, with Hillary Clinton seated just a few feet from him, he tore into her. There was no light touch, no tongue-in-cheek delivery style. It was a hard-hitting rhetorical attack. In other years, his appearances were much more delightfully self-deprecating and winsome.
The former and probable future President’s appearance last night was definitely a one-sided affair,…
