White House Correspondents Insider

Behind the scenes of one of the most powerful clubs in America.

"Sad Birthday Obama" Not So Sad. Really.

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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.

Obama to Meet Virtually Every Football Team Ever

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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 Oval Speech Layups to Game 6

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Whether it’s happenstance or kismet that President Obama chose to speak an hour before Game 6 of the NBA Finals  for his first Oval Office speech on the Gulf oil spill remains to be seen. The president’s confidence in the Lake-show may falter tonight, but his message for BP and the coast likely won’t.

The New York Times makes the case that comparing the oil spill to the economy may not be far off, “Now the president must strike the same sort of balance in talking to the nation about the oil spill. And he has chosen to do so from the familiar office that Americans since the dawn of the television age have come to associate with big moments — for them, and for presidents.”
[Read more…]

Comedy Pro Phil Rosenthal Directed President Clinton’s Famous WHCD Departure Video, Has Advice for President Obama: Play It Straight

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By tradition, the president is the guest of honor at the annual White House Correspondents’ Dinner, and the guest of honor addresses the audience of roughly 2,000 at some point during the evening.

It’s usually a light-hearted, often funny speech, very much in keeping with the chummy spirit of the occasion. But for the jokes to work, delivery is everything.

“I’d tell Barack Obama to treat the jokes, the whole thing, as seriously as the State of the Union speech,” Phil Rosenthal tells WHCInsider. “He should deliver it with the same gravity and seriousness.”

Rosenthal, the creator and executive producer of the hit comedy “Everyone Loves Raymond,” wrote material for all WHCDs that Bill Clinton attended as president and also directed “The Final Days,” the famous video of President Clinton at his last WHCD. Considered one of the funniest presidential comedy routines, the short spoof featured President Clinton riding a bike through the White House and later running to give First Lady Hillary Clinton her lunch before she went off to work in a limo. [Read more…]

Obama Tweets, Media Follow

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1562488393_210c6f0377With a president who addresses the nation weekly via YouTube, can you really be surprised that the White House is now on Twitter? The account name is — surprise again — WhiteHouse, and it’s yet another way the Obama administration is trying to get its message out beyond the usual avenue of the White House press corps.

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!

Wanda-isms: Which is Your Favorite?

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Apollo Theater Fourth Annual Hall Of Fame Induction Ceremony - Inside

Barack Obama is known to prepare his speeches skillfully and, when appropriate, with an occasional shot of humor. Doubtlessly he’ll be working up some good lines for his address to the 2009 WHCD — cracking jokes is part of the tradition. But for Wanda Sykes, the dinner’s entertainment this year, cracking on something — or somebody — just seems to come naturally.

Below are results from a quick Web search for some of her recent one-liners.

To a Los Angeles audience welcoming her with a standing ovation: “Oh, come on, it ain’t like you never seen a black lesbian before.” -The Advocate

On people opposed to gay marriage: “Why do you care that Bob and Jim are getting married, unless you were planning on [having sex with] Bob or Jim?” -The Advocate

On fame: “I guess because of my act, people think that I say things they want to say, and that they can just come up and say anything to me. That bugs me. But I’d rather have people come up and want to meet me than have them ignore me. It’s just timing. Don’t bother me while I’m eating, or when I’m coming out of the crackhouse or something. Just let me get going.” – The Onion

On random searches at airport security: “There’s nothing random about it. You get to the gate and they’re standing there with their Sherwin-Williams paint chart. If your ass is darker than khaki, you’re getting searched.” -Entertainment Weekly

On President George W. Bush: “Either he’s retarded or he thinks we’re retarded” – The Advocate

Got a favorite Wanda-ism? Maybe from a movie or TV show she’s been in, or maybe you caught her stand-up act and remember one or two that made you really laugh?

Let us know in a comment.

The Zeleny Question: Smart or Silly?

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NY Times WH Correspondent’s Question at Obama Presser Provokes Big Reaction Online

During the president’s televised press conference on Wednesday night, the NYT’s Jeff Zeleny asked Barack Obama what had “surprised, humbled, enchanted, and troubled” him the most about the job, now that he was 100 days into it. Zeleny’s colleagues laughed, perhaps not in a complimentary way, and the online world zeroed in on whether the question was, as one site puts it, “brilliant or BS”?

Three takes from: MediaBistro, Christian Science Monitor and New York Magazine.