Obama fiddles while the world burns.

(POLITICO) — President Obama used his first appearance at the annual Gridiron Club Dinner as POTUS to push home an already labored point — with a little help from The Boss.

Taking the stage to give the evening’s closing remarks, the president looked toward the live band at the back of the room and asked, “Can we go with the song we talked about?”

The band struck up Bruce Springsteen’s “Born in the U.S.A.,” drawing big laughs from the some 650 government officials, political figures, news executives and journalists in gathered at the Washington Renaissance hotel for the club’s 126th anniversary.

Each year at the prestigious white-tie event, Gridiron members lampoon political leaders with comedy skits and spoof songs. Traditionally (and the Gridiron Club is nothing but traditional,) the dinner proceedings include an opening skit, a Republican-themed skit, a similar skit lampooning the Democrats and, finally, a closer.

Riffing on the club’s elite reputation, Gridiron president Susan Page of USA Today looked at the finely dressed attendees and said, “Just another Saturday night in Washington . . . exactly as the Tea Party suspects.”

While those inside the dinner, including CBS’s Katie Couric, CNN’s Wolf Blitzer and Jim Lehrer of PBS, enjoyed political lampoons set to the music of Fox television show “Glee,” they could not take to Twitter to tell others what they were missing, due to a ban on tweeting during the event. (Incidentally, those on the outside didn’t miss an expected performance by Jon Bon Jovi. The slated performer was a no-show.)

The Wall Street Journal’s Alan Murray did try to circumvent the social media blackout. He sent out a handful of tweets throughout the dinner, such as this one: “Unfortunately, I also can’t pass on what Mitch Daniels said about riding in a middle airplane seat between Chris Christie and Haley Barbour!”

Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, the evening’s Republican entertainer, was wearing a sling thanks to a recent rotator cuff surgery. He quipped that he sustained the injury flying to the governors’ conference, sitting in an airplane seat between Christie and Barbour. “Their tummies were tucked in the full upright and locked position,” he said.

Representing the Democrats, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius made a funny about Chicago Mayor-elect Rahm Emanuel, who’s infamously potty-mouthed. “We’re all looking forward to May 16, when Rahm’s going to put the swearing back into swearing-in,” she said.

Another memorable moment came from a Gridiron member who sang a song dressed in a red vamp outfit, playing Sarah Palin. Set to the tune of “The Impossible Dream,” the spoof began: “To tweet the un-thought-about tweet/ To own my own name through trademark/ To scorn those who opine against me/ To shoot caribou as a lark.”

While Obama dealt out some zingers, he was on the receiving end of jokes, too. In the Democratic skit, a performer playing Howard Dean groused to the tune of Bob Dylan’s “Just Like a Woman” about Obama’s move to the center: “He looks just like a lib-ral/ Yes he does and he writes books just like a lib-ral/ Yes and his knee jerks just like a lib-ral/ But he works with . . . the Re-pub-li-CANS.”

Yet, on this occasion, the president got the last laugh. The event ended with Obama’s remarks at 10:20 p.m., which is unusually early for Gridiron Dinners, which have been known to last long into the night. “I understand, however, that the bar will be open until midnight,” said the president, adding, “And I hope the government will be, too.”

WASHINGTON (AP) — Searching for laughs — and finding them — president Barack Obama spared few targets Saturday night, from Democratic allies to Republican antagonists to the journalists who cover him.

At his first presidential appearance before the Gridiron Club, Obama picked up on the spirit of the evening, leveling jokes in every direction including his own.

He jabbed at potential Republican presidential rivals. He saluted Mississippi’s portly Gov. Haley Barbour, saying he appreciated his support of First Lady Michelle Obama’s anti-obesity campaign.

“Haley, when Michelle said you should run, she didn’t mean for president.”

He didn’t spare himself, either. He noted that last time he was at the Gridiron, in 2006, he was a first-term senator from Illinois.

“Back then I was a newcomer who couldn’t get anything done in the Senate. Now I’m a president who can’t get anything done in the Senate.”