>> you like me, you really like me. you know, i may complain about coming here. but a year from now i have to

watch someone else give this speech and i will feel an onset of that rare affliction unique to former president's a ged d --agdd attention-getting deficit disorder. plus i will be really burned up when al gore turns out to be funnier than me. but let me say to all of you, i have loved these eight years. i read in the history books how other presidents say the white house is like a penitentiary and every motive they have is suspect even george washington complained he was treated like a thief and they all said they can't wait to get away. i don't know what they are talking about. i have had a wonderful time. it has been an honor to serve and fun to laugh. i only wished we had left more

over these last eight years because power is not the most important thing in life and it only counts for what you use it. i thank you for what you do every day. thank you for all the fun times that hilary and i have had, keep at it, it is a great country, it deserves our best. thank you and god bless you. [applause] [applause] >> hard to believe that was over 20 years ago. we are moments away from the speaking portion of tonight's white house correspondents dinner. tonight headliner is comedian and daily show correspondent, that is expected to start at 9:30 eastern. we have some dinner history. the first white house

correspondents dinner took place in 1921 with president calvin coolidge being the first chief executive to attend the event in 1924, women correspondents although considered full members of the association were not permitted at the dinner until 1962 when president john f. kennedy refused to participate unless women were allowed to attend. you are watching live coverage here on c-span in the speaking curve -- portion begins in about 25 minutes. [indistinct chatter]

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>> as we wait for the entertainment for tonight's event expected to start at about 9:30 here remarks from the 2002 correspondents dinner, president george w. bush makes several references to musician ozzy osbourne who was in attendance.

>> ladies and gentlemen laura and i -- >> we are having technical issues with the remarks from the 2002 correspondents dinner we will continue to look at the sights and sounds. [indistinct chatter]

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>> we are a little over 15 minutes away from the entertainment for tonight's event which includes roy wood junior and is expected to start at 9:30. here now are those remarks from the 2000 two correspondents dinner, president bush -- george w. bush makes references to musician ozzy osbourne who was there at the dinner. >> 2 [applause] >> thank you very much.

>> thank you very much steve. mr. vice president. members of the white house correspondents association. ladies and gentlemen. laura and i are honored to be here tonight thank you for the invitation. what a fantastic audience we have tonight. washington powerbrokers, celebrities, hollywood stars. ozzy osbourne. [applause]

ok ozzie. [laughter] might have been a mistake. [applause] the thing about him is he has made a lot of big hit recordings. [laughter] party with the animals. staff at bloody sabbath, raising hell, black skies and bloodbath in paradise. [applause] [laughter] ozzie, mom loves your stuff. [laughter] [applause]

and drew carey is our entertainment tonight. drew has a fun tv show called whose line is it anyway. which is totally improvised. drew, do you have any interest in the middle east? last year at this dinner i showed photos straight out of the bush family photo album, tonight i'm going to show you some actual never seen before photos taken by the white house photographers over the past 15 months. we've created just for you this slideshow, of what life is really like inside the bush white house. karen, if everyone is in the seat you have assigned them, hit

the projector. when i look back over the last year, i think i have grown, i am much more focused. [laughter] i feel relaxed. [laughter] i mean occasionally there are moments i feel stressed. [laughter] i may have aged a bit. one of the great things about being in the white house is having laura close by whenever she drops by my office my day is brighter. [laughter] [applause] she helps me in a one million ways. here she is helping me pronounce

azerbaijani. [laughter] [applause] we have two dogs. this is our dog barney. with eyebrows like that he ought to be a senator. [laughter] you can tell barney is in some trouble here. this is the day he chewed up the list of undisclosed look at -- locations and we could not find deck. the little guy keeps a lookout like this hour after hour. i wish tom ridge had never had that talk with him about homeland. [applause] this is our dog spot.

people often ask me how i came up with that name. i don't know i'm just creative. [laughter] the thing about spot is she thinks she's the president. when she's coming back from the fundraiser from the american kennel club. but she is truly a great canine american and i value her counsel. just as a value of the council of others on the staff. [laughter] we have a very experienced and mature team of professionals down here at the white house. this is josh bolton. he is the white house deputy chief of staff, america should sleep better at night knowing that this calm levelheaded man is helping guide our nation.

this is nick calio the head of our office of legislative affairs, i had just said to him what are the chances of the senate passing and wire? [applause] nick, nick really prepares me well when congressional leaders come down for meetings. here he is testing out it will be question were going to use on senator burr, [applause] but we really have a highly motivated group down of the white house. the matter what the task at hand each of us gives 110%. the truth is the door to the oval office has a little peephole and this is karen hughes peeping in on me.

this is karl rove peeping in on me. this is connie rice peeping in on me. spot has her own people. [applause] this is an e-card peeping in on me and ladies and gentlemen this is the vice president of the united states looking through a peephole and dick i hope you are not doing what it looks like you're doing. [laughter] [applause] this photo actually has nothing to do with anything. i thought i would show it to you however because it is the known -- only known photo and

existence of alan greenspan smiling. [applause] this is ari flesher, i was chewing him out here. i am saying re: i am sick and tired of you not answering all the wonderful questions asked by our hard-working press corps. are you sure we are not leaking enough? are you sure that we have given them enough access to me? i've got an idea. i will do more interviews. with baseball tonight. [applause] part of the job of a president is to meet with representatives of special interest groups. [laughter] here i am meeting with representatives from the american cloning council. [laughter] i try to work with republicans

and democrats alike. for political reasons some democrats prefer that it not be known they are working with a republican president so they slip in the back door. like hillary clinton here. [laughter] it is now all work of course one day i decided to show the staff the white house bowling alley. boys and girls there's a reason you wear those special shoes. [laughter] another job of the president is dealing with the white house press corps. you asked some tough questions but to tell you the truth i don't think you have laid a glove on me, here i am after our last press conference.

in closing i thought about turning serious and talking about all we have been through since i was here last year. then i decided this was not the time or place. you came to have a good time and we've got drew carey waiting to entertain us so instead, i'm going to leave you with one last thought in one last photo of our dog spot. i ask you ladies and gentlemen is this a great country or what? [applause] thank you very much. [applause] >> the speaking portion of this year's white house correspondents dinner is expected to start in a litter

over five minutes we will have it live for you here on c-span and to mark the 30th anniversary of our live coverage of the correspondents dinner this week's c-span podcast the weekly brings you the top 10 funniest jokes made about c-span by dinner comedians. you can find c-span weekly wherever you get podcasts and along with our coverage here you can follow along on our c-span now app, it is free and it gives you a front row seat to tonight's festivities that you can see live or on-demand later at your convenience.

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>> ladies and gentlemen please take your seats.

>> ladies and gentlemen take your seat the show will begin in

less than two minutes. ladies and gentlemen please take your seats the show is about to begin.

from washington dc it is the white house correspondents dinner with special