Dartmouth College will host, along with Bloomberg and the Washington Post, the Republican presidential candidates tonight to debate the U.S. Economy in what is being tagged as #econdebate.   This is yet another stop on the road to the 2012 election for the candidates who have been debating for the last few months hoping to take a lead in the polls.

“We are pleased to host Republican presidential candidates at Dartmouth,” said President Jim Yong Kim. “The debate on the U.S. economy will take on critical issues of national importance and help us all make informed decisions on Election Day.”

You can watch the debate which begins at 8:00 PM ET  online or on a Bloomberg Television station in your area.

via Politisite.com

Tina Tchen and Valerie Jarrett

Valerie Jarrett, senior adviser to the President and  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.”

Read their entire editorial here.

It’s been almost 50 years since President John F. Kennedy was warmly welcomed to Ireland; he called his 1963 journey to the emerald isle “the best four days of my life.” Obama gave a rousing address to an estimated crowd of 100,000 people at Trinity College, the same location at which President Clinton spoke back in 1995.

For more on the president’s homecoming read the Washington Post’s story here.

Unfortunately, the president will be cutting his trip to Ireland short in order to avoid flying in the ash cloud released by an Icelandic volcano. Looming volcanic ash sounds like a good excuse to throw back a pint of Guinness, although it appears the president didn’t need much arm-twisting when he toasted his “fellow” Irishmen.

Paparazzi was seen outside the White House gates for this year’s Easter Egg Roll as Washington prepares for one of the busiest weekends of the year.  With an influx of notables making their way to the city for the White House Corespondents’ weekend, the paparazzi are preparing for, what photographer Colin Drummond says is, their “biggest weekend of the year.”

Yesterday marked the end of Howard Kurtz’ tenure at the Washington Post and his The Daily Beast debut.

At the end of his final Media Notes, Kurtz writes, “I confess that I enjoyed David Carr’s New York Times line about my job switch prompting the most gasps since Dylan went electric in 1965. But that ain’t me, babe. While I would not have made such a leap even two years ago, it is an evolutionary move, not a revolutionary one, as we all grasp for ways to sustain and reinvent journalism.”

Kurtz will remain in the hosting reigns for CNN’s Reliable Sources, so this is more like when Dylan found out he could publish instantly on a blog rather than plugging into an amp. At Tina Brown’s Beast, which has now publicly announced an end to a proposed merger with Newsweek according to the Wall Street Journal, Kurtz will take on the newly minted Washington Bureau Chief role.

Fittingly Kurtz ran his first Beast article yesterday with a topic he has experience in: How The Media Blew The Midterms. The lede?

“The media narrative by now is set in concrete: The voters are teed off, rising up, mad as hell and ready to wreak havoc.”

Already Kurtz is out to flex his claws into something a bit more fierce–shall we say, “talons”–when it comes to his new home.
photo: NBC/Meet The Press

Newsweek Editor Jon Meacham has agreed to step down as part of the ownership transition.

According to the post on Newsweek.com, Meacham announced his departure in an e-mail to staff this afternoon: “It has been a privilege beyond measure to have worked for NEWSWEEK and for The Washington Post Company for the past 15 years. I will always be grateful for the opportunity the magazine gave me to serve alongside all of you. For half a century the Graham family created and sustained a culture in which we were able to do good, important work, and I know NEWSWEEK will continue to do so.”

“In seeking a buyer for Newsweek, we wanted someone who feels as strongly as we do about the importance of quality journalism. We found that person in Sidney Harman,” said Donald E. Graham, chairman and chief executive officer of The Washington Post Company, in a press release issued by the company.

Harman made his fortune in audio equipment and is the husband of Representative Jane Harman (D-CA).

Beltway Boys from Vanity Fair article: Jim VandeHei, John Harris, Robert Allbritton, Mike Allen. Photograph by Gasper Tringale.

Don’t miss Michael Wolff’s great article in Vanity Fair.

On the surface, a paean to Politico: “Four old-media veterans may have solved the future of news with the Politico Web site.”

But arguably a look at Washington’s Fourth Estate and the problems facing general interest newspapers, which are losing readers and revenues at a fast clip. The irony? Politico’s print edition is what has edged their business model out of the red and closer to black.

From the article:

“Politico puts its current traffic at 6.7 million unique visitors per month (down from a high of more than 11 million during the campaign), yet it still can’t support its staff of about 100 on the Internet’s low advertising rates (although, with its agenda-moving audience and its preponderance of advocacy advertisers, it manages to get a higher rate than most sites). But one effect of its Internet traffic and notoriety and the ensuing attention of cable news shows is that the original Allbritton idea for a Capitol Hill paper-one that now largely reprints Internet content-has become, with its special-interest-size circulation of 32,000, a major success. Internet cachet, in other words, has enabled a tabloid-size print version of Politico (also called Politico) to thrive and more than double the company’s revenues-which, just about evenly split between Internet and newspaper, will, it appears, be more than $15 million in 2009-meaning, according to C.E.O. Fred Ryan, that Politico, paying its staffers at nearly the level that The Washington Post pays (starting salaries for reporters at the Post are about $45,000 per year), has hit breakeven.”

TomKat and two-time Oscar winner Robert DeNiro will be among the famous faces at the dinner, the Washington Post reports. For more, plus some details on the exclusive Vanity Fair-Bloomberg after-party, click here.

As of this moment, there are nearly 33,000 followers, including at least one White House correspondent — Jake Tapper of ABC News. The media at large have noticed with articles (Washington Post and USA Today, for instance). Doubtlessly more news organizations will as well.

The question: Is a Twittering White House a good thing? Let us know what you think in a comment.

And be sure to follow WHCInsider on Twitter, too!