guinness to handle this crowd. we face big challenges in this country. you provide the sights and sounds that tell important stories and inform the american people. these are challenges we are working to solve every day. rahm and i were talking about the importance of passing health care. have fun tonight. i will see you soon. >> one of the longstanding traditions of our association is to toast our special guest, so please stand and join me and the executive committee in that tradition. to the vice president, joe biden. to the members of the 111th congress. we are very honored to have you

with us here tonight. salut. now it gives me great pleasure to introduce the head table. i will begin from my far left, your right. you guys can sit down. [laughter] olga ramirez. lee and paul well, of pacifica radio. joe wong, tonight's entertainment. joe daly, communications assistant to the speaker of the house. al jazeera network. elizabeth alexander, press

secretary to the vice president. andrea seabrook, national public radio. senator orrin hatch, republican, utah. our rtca awards coordinator, jill jackson of cbs news. your next chair of the radio tv association, peter slen of c- span. from my far right, you're left, mike mondrian, jim manley, senior communications director to senator harry reid. fox news channel. senator lamar alexander, republican of tennessee.

chairman of this dinner in 2012 and everybody's favorite cameraman, jay mcmichael. chair of the house rules committee, straight from health care debate centro, louise slaughter from new york. dave mcconnell. rtca executive committee outgoing treasurer, linda kenyan of crn news. and of course you know mr. vice president. you can clap. [applause] our association is fortunate to have the house and senate radio tv gallery staff.

they help us do our job every day. i want to expand a special thank you. these folks are the heart and soul of making the daily coverage of capitol hill possible. on the house side, olga ramirez, gayle davis, helen debarge, and anthony keller. on the senate side, a crhichris boyd and arlen salazar. >> ladies and gentlemen, awards coordinator jill jackson of cbs news [applause] ] >> good evening. we take a moment to celebrate our colleagues with two awards.

the first recognizes outstanding coverage of public policy and politics on capitol hill. this year's judges for the award weremat matt lazlo and annie penn. here to present the award is bill plant of cbs news. [applause] -- is bill plante of cbs news. [applause] ladies and gentlemen, good evening. this award, which i am so proud to be able to present a number of years in a row, honors a woman who all of you would love if only she were still here. jones lawrence been started as a

researcher. -- joan sorenstein started as a richard pitcher. she had the kind of standards that people say do not exist anymore. the winners tonight are prove that such standards do still exist in our business. joan was tough and smart. she was someone who enjoyed the world, life, and politics -- particularly politics. she was the kind of person whom you would want to be sitting with at your table tonight. it is my great honor now to announce this year's winners of the joan peron award. andrea seabrook. [applause]

annpr's reporting of the intersection of money and politics in the health-care debate impressed the judges for propelling its medium into a new realm of explanatory journalism. it all started with a picture that they took at healthcare markup. >> we had no idea how big a splash a photo could make. through e-mails, tweets, and comments, people in washington and around the country said they had never seen anything like it -- a shot of the lobbyists watching the first congressional committee to watch a health-care bill. we asked you to help identify the lobbyists. it is a trick of modern reporting called crowds sourcing -- crowdsourcing. we have now identified 16

people in the photo. just as interesting as the photo itself was the reaction to it. >> i now present to you. [laughter] [applause] >> thank you very much. peter and i are thrilled. we should say we hope you all have the kind of opportunity that we have had to work with the most collaborative and thoughtful news room here in washington. i hope you get the chips to think carefully about how you report your stories, as we have. we should tip our hat to a few

people, especially brian duffy, who edits the stories, and to the online folks who took the photo and produced the website. they did an amazing job we could not have done because we do not do that kind of thing. we definitely need to thinank ju lie rothner. >> and the people who got behind the project and let us do it. push your newsroom to let you do what we do. thank you very much. [applause]

>> the committee would also like to welcome joan's father. thank you for coming each year. [applause] our next award is the david bloom award. the award is given for enterprise, feature, or investigative reporting that is dangerous. this year's judges were [unintelligible] here to present this award are david bloom's daughters, eva and nicole. [applause]

>> our sister christine could not be here tonight because she has mandatory camp for her high school lacrosse team. so tonight i get to talk. almost seven years ago, my sisters and i found out that our father had passed away while covering the war in iraq. at the age of three it was hard for me to understand that he would never come home. i was left with very few memories of my dad. one memory i have is watching him on tv every morning and running up to kiss the screen when he came on. whenever i saw him on the news i just saw him, not where he was or what he was doing. now i realize what dangerous places he was in and that he was risking his life to spread news to the world. [applause]

>> the winner of the david bloom award shows bravery on the job. we are honored to present this year's award to the bbc -- to present this award to lyse doucet of the bbc "world news america." [applause] the judges said that herpes took a different look at a part of afghanistan that is rarely seen. for women in remote northeastern afghanistan it is not just buy ied's that pose a challenge on a daily basis. it is also the simple act of giving life. >> far away, she has delivered

her baby. the baby is dead. it is her second child to die of the same birth defect. outside, her mother breaks the sad news to the father, but the mood in the delivery room is not what you would expect. remember, so many women died giving birth that surviving itself is a triumph over the odds. take you for my life, she says. my life is more important. i will have a child again. [applause] >> hello.

it is really wonderful to be here at the awards dinner of the radio and television correspondents. in my work, i do not often get to stay in places with 24 hours of electricity and all this running water. it is especially terrific because of these young girls, eva and nicole. sadly, christine could not be here. [applause] did your mother come? where is melaney? hello, melaney. [applause] how we wish that david bloom was also with us. [applause]

like i am sure almost everyone in this room, i saw david reporting from iraq in 2003. i saw that bloommobile. i thought "who says journalists don't have real skills?" when i was nominated for this award, i read more about him. i thought if he was alive today, alive with all that energy and drive and passion for telling stories he would probably be going in and out of afghanistan now. all of us in this room who also go to afghanistan would have been running into him. he would greet us in his charming way, saying "hey, buddy."

but then i thought if i saw david bloom in afghanistan go up and say "hey, buddy"-- he was an avid ice hockey player. i would say "too bad about the men's final in the olympics. but you know, david? we really wanted to win." his death reminds us all of the journalists who die covering the stories, the people who died fighting in those wars and the people who die just living in countries at war. david died of a pulmonary embolism, a very treatable disease. when we went to northeastern afghanistan we wanted to go to the furthest corner of the country where there is the

highest ever recorded rate of maternal mortality. women died giving birth. our security adviser said "great. there are no security problems there. even the taliban did not go there when they ruled afghanistan." what is it like being in a place without electricity or running water? the car broke down. the house we stayed in burned down from a gas canister. we had a minor earthquake. we were stranded for days. that is where you see the stoicism of afghans, the people who live there day in and day out. we are very armored. this is the second year in a row that you have honored us at these awards. i think maybe the judges got

confused with my canadian accent and thought i might be working for abc, or they thought i was a cajun from louisiana. "world news america" is the new kid on the blocked, but there is something about bbc and america together that sounds really important. we are very happy that you have made as part of your broadcasting. i want to thank the executive producer of bbc america. i want to thank [unintelligible] my colleagues that went with us as well, our driver, and all of you. thank you very much. [applause]

>> congratulations again to our winners. thank you once again to our judges for going through dozens about standing entries. we are lucky to work for we are with such wonderful people on capitol hill. thank you. [applause] >> thank you, jill. it is now my distinct honor and pleasure to introduce to you the vice president of the united states, joe biden. [applause]

>> thank you all very much. thank you so much. it is an honor to be here with you tonight. i just got back from five days in the middle east. i love to travel. but it is great to be back in a place where a boom in housing construction is actually a good thing. [laughter] trying to negotiate a lasting peace between the palestinians and the israelis is tough, but it was a hell of a nice break from health care. i understand liz cheney is in the house. i am glad to see her dad is doing well. she has been on a tear lately. now she is questioning if tom

brady is a real patriot. [laughter] what the hell. it is worth a try, guys. it is worth a try. happy st. patrick's day to all of you. [applause] the truth is i cannot believe i am here with you guys. here i am, the first irish catholic vice-president in the history of the united states of america. barack obama, the first african american in the history of the united states of america. he goes to the st. patrick's day dinner and i and here with you all. go figure. [laughter] he is with my face. i am with his. the more i thought about that, i know why he wanted to be with

all those irish-americans. he really believes that st. patrick is the one responsible for driving lobbyists out of ireland. but you all know sam patrick was credited with banishing snakes from ireland but you guys know the truth, sometimes. there were never any snakes in ireland. saint patrick just made that up. that explained why he is the patron saint of fox news. [applause] look. if [laughter] it is not all lost. tonight, i am here with a group of distinguished irish- americans -- ken salazar, walter

sorenstein. you even have a great irish artist, joe wong. [laughter] these guys do not get it. i apologize for bringing this up but i know you are all aware of the fact that this dinner is viewed as the less prestigious of the two dinners, this in the white house correspondents' dinner. i understand. in the minds of all of you here, you know this dinner is just as worthwhile. i know a lot of you find it hard to understand why you gets second billing. welcome to my world. [laughter] [applause] i had a choice between speaking to this dinner for the white house correspondents -- speaking

at this dinner or the white house correspondents' dinner. to me, this is a no-brainer. newspapers, radio and television -- at least you guys still have an audience. [laughter] come on. that was good. that was better than that. [applause] i tell you what -- what a bunch of stiffs. i tell you. over the last 35 years i have attended a lot of dinners as a united states senator. the good news for me tonight is i do not have to get the 10:00 train to go home to wilmington. i have a house in washington dc for the first time. i voted for public housing my whole career. i never had any idea it was going to be this good. i have finally come to realize how screwed up this city is.

it has a language of its own. for example, a deep background means you will be quoted in the game change. senior white house official whimeans rahm. reconciliation means war. only in washington. but actually it -- you did not believe the president saying he would rather be with you, ed did you? come on. y'all ought that slow. it is good to be with you. i admire the skills required to be an anchor, a commentator, a talking head. i think you have a pretty tough job. but occasionally i am surprised by your lack of self awareness. for example, when dick morris is quick to point out every time i

put my foot in my mouth -- at least it is my foot. [applause] by the way, rahm was only pointing fingers. look -- i know you are going to get mad, but i think you are a little rough on the republicans for causally repeating the mantra "the health care bill is 222 pages long." put yourself in their spot. that is a hell of a lot to write in the palm of your hand. i do not blame them. by the way, i know that you're

supposed to be as serious as i am trying to be, but i have to defend our administration, especially the recovery act, which i have been put in charge of. the republicans keep saying it has not created a single job. tell that to senator scott brown. [laughter] by the way, speaking of scot, it is kind of ironic. the man who posed with his pants down caught us with our pants off. i do not howl -- i do not know how that works. we have sort of zeroed in now. it is often said a picture is worth a thousand words. normally, i would rather go with the words. [laughter] it is best tonight i sum up the journey barack and i have had

since being elected. i thought the best way to do that was share some of my photos that show how i am adjusting to the job. at our convention, president obama addressed a statement of ring supporters. let me set the record straight. he is not the only one that addressed the stadium. sasha and malie were not the only -- and malia were not the only ones to get a dog. you can see my dog is biting the hand that feeds him. he is a democratic dog. [laughter] one of the first things the president did was say we have to have some ground rules. ground rules relating to our relationship and how to function in my job. the next slide is one of our first days in the white house.

the president is explaining to me exactly how far down i have to bowel when i enter the oval office. -- how far down i have bow when i enter the oval office. that is not the only ground rule. the slides are about two seconds ahead. it is a really simple proposition. people beat in the primary walk four paces behind. the other rule may be the most important one -- stay on message. it is something i am really good at. [laughter] as you can see, he takes it very seriously. another rule is that i have to pay attention even when larry summers is in a cabinet meeting. you know how hard that is. i have figured out how to fake it. it comes in handy not just at cabinet meetings.