That’s how much a private fundraiser held for President Obama garnered according to TheWrap. Held at the home of producer John Wells, Hollywood came out to hear the president explain his upcoming legislative agenda and other remarks in the relaxed atmosphere of a walled garden.
Screencap from NY Daily News. Pete Souza/White House
For the 49th birthday of the President of the United States, you’d think it was the saddest day ever if you were the New York Daily News.
The Gotham tabloid started this piece about the President’s special day in true fashion: “It’s your party, Mr. President. You can cry if you want to.” It doesn’t hurt to run a file photo of the President staring at a plate of cupcakes like it was a handful of oil.
Back to the plate at hand: the photo (left) shares a strange similarity to when Helen Thomas celebrated her 89th birthday and received a plate of cupcakes from the President (and he’s smiling too!)
In fact, the photo is from last year while Obama “watches the flame on the candle as he walks to the Brady Briefing Room to present cupcakes to Hearst White House columnist Helen Thomas in honor of her birthday, Aug. 4, 2009.”
So if you thought the President was sad due to A-Rod’s 600th hit or his birth date still being debated, don’t fret. Even if he didn’t get to eat his cake from the AFL-CIO according to Yahoo, we’re sure he’ll enjoy Wendy Williams’ Gift Bag and a birthday tweet (via Savannah Gutherie) from Russian President Dmitri Medvedev.
DC, News, News Media, White House History, White House Staff
President Obama will meet with the winner of Super Bowl XLV as early as next month. Sounds weird, right? But it’s actually true, since a pixelized president is in the latest edition of the Madden NFL 11 video game franchise released on August 10th.
Once you complete the season and your team wins the Super Bowl, the ending of the game involves President Obama’s jerky game avatar meeting with other bits of code and holding up a jersey.
Game Informer notes how weird the cameo looks in context with a game for die-hard sports fans. The complete video can be found on IGN. Of course this isn’t the first off-kilter cameo for President Obama: Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen presents Obama as a pacifist who eventually submits to the Decepticons referenced in an off-hand news clip and the third season premiere of The Boondocks which involved a Germany documentary filmmaker (voiced by actual filmmaker Werner Herzog) breaking down the hype of Obama’s 2008 campaign according to this Washington Post review.
It’s a shame though that an 8-bit Bill Clinton or George H.W. Bush never got to do this on the Nintendo, Genesis or Playstation.
Photo via Game Informer/IGN.
Obama’s premiere Oval Office speech last week was the worst of social media and the best of social media.
Mashable ran “Obama Speech on BP Oil Not A Hit with Facebook and Twitter Users” after taking data provided by Crimson Hexagon from “83,000 Tweets and public Facebook comments” over a nine hour shift. But taking such things into account can provide little feedback, especially when 15 percent of the poll were annoyed they missed So You Think You Can Dance and the other five questioned why so many people would anonymously make fun of the president.
President Obama has announced Solicitor General of the United States, Elena Kagan as the nominee to fill the opening of retiring Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens.
President Obama called Stevens a “consistent voice of reason” and said he believes Kagan will “ultimately provide that same kind of leadership on the Court.” Kagan, 50, is the first female Solicitor General and was the first female Dean of the Harvard Law School. Her nomination must be confirmed by the Senate.
Here she is last month at HBO’s screening of their documentary, Sergio.
Samantha Power and Elena Kagan at HBO's screening of "Sergio," based on Power's' book about Sergio de Mello, Chief of the UN efforts in Baghdad.
HBO’s The Pacific Honors Veterans in D.C. from whcinsider on Vimeo.
Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks brought their new HBO mini-series, “The Pacific,” to the White House for a screening with President Obama. The mini-series begins this Sunday on HBO and tells the story of the Marines in the Pacific Theater during WWII.
Pete Souza took this shot of Obama, Spielberg, Hanks and other guests in the Family Theater in the White House.
Official White House Photo by Pete Souza
The Beeb is stepping up its game in the former colonies by getting into the After Party sweepstakes in the Washington, D.C., dinner season. All the top radio and TV correspondents will gather on March 17 for the RTCA dinner; President Obama is a no-show, but Vice President Biden will appear and he’s always been a favorite of broadcasters for his commentary.
BBC has hired top party guru Philip Dufour to capture the media stars, their guests, and the accolades for 2010.
Dufour also worked on MSNBC’s 2009 after party. The event, held at the Washington Historical Society, was unforgettable. The evening included a Starbucks “Morning Joe” coffee bar and a celeb mixologist, Rachel Maddow.
Check out WHCInsider’s coverage of the 2009 party.
Please enable Javascript and Flash to view this Flash video.President Obama’s use of new media and social networking was widely praised during the campaign. That same focus a year into his presidency has some in the White House press corps grumbling, according to Howard Kurtz in today’s Washington Post:
“President Obama hasn’t held a full-scale news conference since July. Instead, he answered a dozen people’s questions last week on YouTube, most of the easily finessed and — extra bonus! — no annoying follow-ups of the kind posed by real, live journalists.”
Watch the president’s YouTube interview below:
“It’s a source of great frustration here … It’s important for us to hold the president’s feet to the fire,” CBS White House correspondent Chip Reid told Kurtz.
Click here for the complete article.
Obama supporters received an email from the president’s top campaign leader, David Plouffe, thanking them for their participation in a survey about what they want to the President to do in 2010.
The email linked to a web video of Plouffe explaining the survey results and inviting supporters to watch a live strategy update and Q&A session with President Obama on February 4, at 5:45 PM ET, called “A Conversation with the President.”
Click HERE to watch Plouffe’s video message.
As Republicans wonder whether allowing Obama’s exchange with GOP lawmakers to be televised was a wise political move, a campaign has started to demand more opportunities for the right and the left to ask some questions.
“[A] bipartisan group of bloggers, commentators, politicos, and Internet advocates—with a combined readership in the millions—has launched an online campaign urging President Obama, GOP House leader John Boehner and Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell to make Question Time—televised and webcasted—a regular feature of American democracy. You can join this call at DemandQuestionTime.com,” writes David Corn (@DavidCornDC) in an article in today’s Mother Jones.
Evidently, interest was overwhelming: the campaign website was down this morning.
Watch the video of the President’s appearance at the House GOP Issues Conference in Baltimore.
The White House announced in a blog post this morning that President Obama will “take questions from YouTube users next Wednesday at a live White House event,” according to Talking Points Memo. Christina Bellantoni reports the project, which was not announced through the usual press channels, is “another example of the Obama team circumventing the Washington establishment to communicate more directly with voters.”
There’s already a free White House iPhone app that will live stream the president’s State of the Union address tomorrow night.
Click here for the rest of Bellantoni’s article.
Newly-elected Massachusetts Senator Scott Brown not only got more votes than Martha Coakley on Election Day, he had more Twitter followers (10,76 to 3,657), more Facebook friends (83,535 to 15,573), a bigger YouTube channel (675,208 views to 76,805).
Coakley’s campaign neglected to tweet details of President Obama’s Saturday rally to supporters, according to an article in Advertising Age.
“It was all old-school ways of getting people to spread the word. It felt like they were trying to win Ted Kennedy’s seat using Ted Kennedy’s techniques,” according to David Meerman Scott, a Coakley supporter and author of “The New Rules of Marketing and PR.”
White House visitors enjoyed a special welcome yesterday – First Lady Michelle Obama and First Dog Bo in the Blue Room. It was the one-year anniversary of the Obama presidency, which began with President Obama promising “To open the White House to more visitors.”
Associated Press reports more than 614,000 guests visited the White House last year.
CLICK HERE for the AP story.
Check out the White House video of the event.
Visitors have commented on the lack of personal touches to the Oval Office and the absence of family photos. The spartan look was on dramatic display during NBC News’ unprecedented two-hour, behind-the-scenes special with President Obama in the White House.
Even President Obama’s Air Force One office has a noticeable lack of “stuff.”
But Obama has finally put his own touch on the Oval Office: fresh fruit has replaced cut flowers, family photos are now on display along with Native American pottery and some small technological devices from the mid-19th century on loan from the National Museum of American History’s patent collection.
He’s even added some tchotchkes, including a penholder that was a gift from Prime Minister Gordon Brown.
Check out the photos and article by Erin Loechner of “Design for Mankind” on AOL’s ShelterPop blog by clicking here.
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