Valerie Jarrett, senior adviser to the Presidentand Tina Tchen, FLOTUS Chief of Staff and head of the White House Council on Women and Girls, penned an editorial in the Washington Post promoting the President’s jobs initiative and the importance of his new partnership with the National Science Foundation (NSF). It detailed initiatives that will help bring a work-life balance to the science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields that often see women drop out due to family responsibilities. They say, “for many women who dream of becoming scientists and researchers, these kinds of simple, common-sense changes will make a world of difference. And our entire economy can benefit, because if more women have the chance to pursue STEM careers, it will lead to more innovation, entrepreneurship and growth.”
Alan Krueger playing at the 2009 WTT Celebrity Tennis Match
President Obama nominated Alan Krueger as the Chair to the Council of Economic Advisers. In his remarks given in the White House rose garden, Obama said,
“Alan brings a wealth of experience to the job. He’s one of the nation’s leading economists. For more than two decades, he’s studied and developed economic policy, both inside and outside of government.”
Krueger served as the chief economist at the Treasury Department until 2010 when he left to go to Princeton as a Bendheim Professor of Economics and Public Affairs. He will be replacing Austan Goolsbee who left the White House to go back to Chicago.
While President Obama is travelling throughout the Midwest this week checking in on the American people, he’s also checking in via Foursquare, the location-based networking website. According to the official White House Blog the administration is “excited to launch” the president’s latest venture into social media as he kicks off his economic bus tour.
You can follow the President on the road through Cannon Falls, Minnesota; Decorah and Peosta, Iowa; and Atkinson and Alpha, Illinois. Through the new White House page on Foursquare, you can keep up with the President’s tour and check-in to let your friends know you’re there.
The administration already has a Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, and Flickr account where people can engage with officials.
California’s Lt. Governor Gavin Newsom gathered with friends and supporters after a spectacular day in Washington
The President, in between his Congressional negotiations, met with World Series Champions, San Francisco Giants. Joining them in the East Room were former San Francisco Mayors Willie Brown and Gavin Newsom, as well as current Mayor Ed Lee, and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi.
Baseball legend, Willie Mays, was also in attendance who “was just a 23-year-old out-fielder the last time the Giants won the World Series, back when the team was in New York.” President Obama said, “even though there have been some great Giant’s teams since them, none of them had brought a championship back to the Bay Area.” This was a special team indeed, as Obama quoted manager Bruce Bochy, who once called them a bunch of ‘misfits and cast-offs’ and then looks around at the unique team, but then said the “one thing they know, is how to win.”
The President ended his talk with wishing the Giants the best of luck, ”unless the White Sox are in the world series, which right now is not a sure thing” and was then presented with a signed bat, custom glove and jersey #44.
Gavin Newsom, was also in town to discuss his upcoming release of California’s Economic Growth and Competitiveness plan–state’s first plan in a decade–meeting with the Center for American Progress, Brookings Institution, U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the State Department, and the President’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness and stopped by 701 Pennsylvania Avenue with friends such as Eve and Peter O’Toole, Marc Adelman, Reta Jo Lewis, Dan Maldonado, Evan Ryan, Francisco Sanchez, Maria Teresa Kumar, Neil Albert, Patricia Daley and Paul Glenchur.
“Bob [Bauer] is a good friend and has served as a trusted advisor for many years. Bob was a critical member of the White House team. He has exceptional judgment, wisdom, and intellect, and he will continue to be one of my close advisors,” said President Obama in a statement announcing the change of staff. Bauer will go back to the private sector to resume his position at Perkins Coie and will work on Obama’s reelection campaign. He will officially leave the White House at the end of June.
Kathryn Ruemmler currently serve’s as Bauer’s deputy and has been at the White House since January of 2010. Ruemmler will be the third White House counsel for this administration (after Bauer and Greg Craig). Prior to the White House, she served at the Department of Justice and, at the office of Latham & Watkins, and was a co-lead prosecutor in the Enron investigations.
The day before Osama Bin Laden was killed the President entertained a crowd of high profile politicos, media personalities and hollywood celebs at the Washington Hilton throwing satirical punches at Donald Trump with video pieces of his birth certificate and his never seen before “actual birth.” SNL’s Seth Meyers brought his whole family to the affair as well as his Weekend Update humor.
Check out the videos below:
Obama’s speech is now the most watched video on C-SPAN’s YouTube channel with over 6 million hits and counting.
In another sign of a new Obama era, notoriously camera shy David Plouffe, Senior Advisor to the President, is kicking off a new program the White House is calling a “direct line to senior staff.”
With Advise the Advisor, every week a member of senior staff will post a video seeking the opinions and feedback of the American people on different issues. Plouffe kicked off the program with a short video harkening back to the President’s “win the future” State of the Union message.
You can go now to whitehouse.gov/advise and send your thoughts on American innovation. Be sure to check back in to see if your idea passed muster – they promise to read through as much of the feedback as possible and post a summary a few days after the video goes up.
Dec. 7, 2010. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)
It may have been Steelers vs. Packers out on the field last night but Bill O’Reilly tried his best to get President Obama to fumble during their pre-Super Bowl interview onFox News.
As Susan Milligan points out in US News, the President deftly handled O’Reilly’s line of questioning and observes that Obama’s “behavior indicates he is unwilling to engage in petty political food fights.”
O’Reilly: “Does it disturb you that so many people hate you?”
Obama: “You know, the truth is that the people—and I’m sure previous presidents would say the same thing, whether it was Bush or Clinton or Reagan or anybody—the people who dislike you don’t know you.”
The objective of Milligan’s piece was to point out media irresponsibility. But the O’Reilly/Obama interview is also another example of what John Harris and Jim VandeHei explore today in POLITICO: how the President is “playing the press like a fiddle.”
He is doing it by exploiting some of the most long-standing traits among reporters who cover politics and government — their favoritism for politicians perceived as ideologically centrist and willing to profess devotion to Washington’s oft-honored, rarely practiced civic religion of bipartisanship.
Click here to read the entire article on POLITICO.
The infamous groundhog Punxsutawney Phil may have spotted his shadow yesterday signifying an early spring but it remains to be seen how quickly relations thaw between the press corps and the White House.
People around the world have been watching the reports of tens of thousands of Egyptians flooding the streets of Cairo calling for a regime change. The White House response to the clash between anti-government protestors and supporters of President Hosni Mubarak has been guarded, making few statements on what is being called a major foreign policy crisis.
Left without substantive updates on the situation in Egypt and shut out from the President’s Cabinet meeting on Tuesday, the White House Correspondents Association sent a letter to Press Secretary Robert Gibbs complaining that “for two straight days the full press pool is being shut out of events that have typically been open and provided opportunities try to ask the President a question.”
The letter, written by WHCA Executive Director Julia Whitson, was sent in advance of the President’s signing of the New START Treaty, the new nuclear arms reduction pact with Russia.
“We are writing to protest in the strongest possible terms the White House’s decision to close the President’s Cabinet meeting on Tuesday and his signing of the START Treaty today to the full press pool.
The START treaty was held up as one of the President’s most important foreign policy priorities for almost a year dating back to the trip to Prague last spring. We are concerned that now his signing of it is open to still photographers but closed to editorial, including print and wire reporters and television cameras.” Read the full letter at mediabistro.com.
In the end, the White House stuck by its decision and allowed only a small group of photographers into the Oval Office for the signing of the treaty.
As reported in The Hill, Gibbs said the decision to keep reporters out of the signing was based on fear they would shout questions to the President about Egypt, and continued to defend the decision by stating it was “part of the coverage plans that have been in place for a bit now.”
Two days after giving his State of the Union address, President Obama took to the Internet to directly answer questions from Americans and people around the world on a wide range of subjects. Over 1.3 million people voted on almost 200,000 video and text questions submitted through Google Moderator and Twitter, picking the ones they most wanted the President to answer.
President Obama sat down for “Your Interview with the President,” hosted by YouTube’s Steve Grove, and responded to questions on subjects ranging from education reforms, healthcare, the recent unrest in Egypt, to his “pick” for the Superbowl.
William Daley, JPMorgan Chase senior executive and Secretary of Commerce during the Clinton administration, has been named the new White House Chief of Staff.
Daley officially takes over for Rahm Emanuel who left to return to Chicago to campaign for mayor (coincidentally, Mr. Daley’s brother Richard serves as Chicago’s current Mayor). Pete Rouse, who served as interim chief of staff, will continue as a Counselor to the President.
Bill Daley, Bill Daley Jr., Tom Hynes, and Terry Dee at the CURE Epilepsy Benefit in Chicago 2010
In today’s special announcement in the East Room, President Obama said he was “proud to announce the appointment of an experienced public servant, devoted patriot, and my friend, fellow Chicagoan Bill Daley, to serve as my Chief of Staff. Few Americans can boast the breadth of experience that Bill brings to this job.”
UPDATE (4:54 PM): In today’s White House press briefing Robert Gibbs confirmed he was leaving the White House and when asked about leaving and what his next steps were, Gibbs responded, “that is it is an honor and a privilege to stand here, to work inside this building, to serve your country, to work for a President that I admire as much as President Barack Obama. I’ve been a member of his staff for almost seven years, and it’s — again, it’s a remarkable privilege. It is in many ways the opportunity of a lifetime, one that I will be forever thankful and grateful for. What I’m going to do next is step back a little bit, recharge some. We’ve been going at this pace for at least four years. I will have an opportunity I hope to give some speeches. I will continue to provide advice and counsel to this building and to this President. And I look forward to continuing to do that.”
To view the full press briefing and Gibbs statement click here.
Press Secretary Robert Gibbs will be leaving the White House briefing room podium in early February according to a New York Times article from this morning.
Gibbs will continue to be an adviser to President Obama and will work on his re-election campaign as well as hit the speaking circuit.
Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks with Robert Gibbs at the White House
President Obama commented on Gibbs’ departure to the New York Times in a brief phone interview, saying: “We’ve been on this ride together since I won my Senate primary in 2004… He’s had a six-year stretch now where basically he’s been going 24/7 with relatively modest pay. I think it’s natural for someone like Robert to want to step back for a second to reflect, retool and that, as a consequence, brings about both challenges and opportunities for the White House.” The President declined to comment on who would be replacing him but said “You’ll be seeing announcements in due course.”
The White House Correspondent’s “Weekend Update” is that Saturday Night Live’s own Seth Meyers will be the entertainment for 2011′s big dinner (as reported by POLITICO) in which his audience will be made up of everyone from President Obama to every major media outlet and the celebrity guests they bring. Like those that have preceded him, such as this year’s Jay Leno and 2009′s Wanda Sykes, Meyer’s faces a tough crowd but will expectedly use his social and political commentary that has made him popular on SNL’s Weekend Update segment as part of his routine.
This is the second headline for the 2011 dinner in recent weeks as the argument still continues as to whether the dinner should be moved due to it occurring only one day after the royal wedding (although the WHCA has stated they will not move the dinner).
Check out last Saturday’s Weekend Update featuring the Kardashian sisters:
(Kim Kardashian was a guest of Greta Van Susteren at WHCD this May)
Keep checking back to WHC Insider for more WHCD updates and news.
It’s science fair day at the White House! PresidentObama will host winners from categories ranging from technology to engineering and math. Discovery’s Mythbusters’ Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman will be in attendance as President Obama announces his participation in the December 8 episode, Archimedes Solar Ray where he will challenge the ancient myth: Did Greek scientist and polymath Archimedes set fire to an invading Roman fleet using only mirrors and the reflected rays of the sun?
Stay tuned to WHC Insider for the LIVE White House feed of the President’s remarks at 12 Noon ET.
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