White House Correspondents Insider

Behind the scenes of the most powerful city in the world — Washington, D.C. — and those who cover it.

Nate Silver vs. The Academy

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Google Talk with Nate Silver

The Academy Awards have been as mysterious as the electoral college, but perhaps no more? Nate Silver, flexing his mighty 2012 election data, announced today that he’d take a third try at figuring out why little gold men go to certain people and not others.

“My track record? Nine correct picks in 12 tries, for a 75 percent success rate. Not bad, but also not good enough to suggest that there is any magic formula for this,” he wrote. Even a 75 percent standing is impressive when many self-proclaimed “oscar gurus” are on par with their politico cousins in D.C. Sure, saying a democrat will take California is just as easy as saying that a Steven Spielberg film could get Best Picture or Daniel Day-Lewis is convincing as Abraham Lincoln.

Silver instead relied on the same formula from the election: taking a variety of data from insider (e.g. The Directors Guild of America, Screen Actors Guild) and outsider (e.g. Chicago Film Critics Association, Golden Globes) sources that’ve chosen their favorites. The data does appear to be skewing heavily for Argo to take Best Picture while Lincoln sweeps up the rest. But it’s the Best Supporting Actress category that will make or break Silver’s future chances at Oscar:

“There is considerably less reason for last-minute campaigning in this category: Anne Hathaway as about as safe a bet to win for “Les Misérables” as Mitt Romney was to win Utah. If Sally Field or Amy Adams wins instead, it will probably be time for me to retire from the Oscar-forecasting business.”

We’ll find out on Sunday whether Nate Silver can ever show his face in Hollywood ever again.

Obama Would Probably Chose The Horse-Sized Duck

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President Barack Obama made the toughest decision of his political career when he managed to break Reddit during the 2012 campaign. He’d fight the horse-sized duck. Maybe.

The answer is just as strange as the question, but since it’s a staple meme on Reddit it comes as a surprise to no one. Buzzfeed released another chapter from their upcoming campaign e-book, “Panic 2012: The Sublime and Terrifying Inside Story of Obama’s Final Campaign.” The chapter is dedicated to the day that Obama took to Reddit on his own AMA, or Ask Me Anything. The president showed the importance of “being yourself” on social media, but only days later did his digital campaign team notice one forgotten question: would he fight 100 duck-sized horses or one horse-sized duck?
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Nate Silver To Break Internet Tomorrow During Reddit AMA

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If you throw questions about narwhals and wizards at Nate Silver on the Internet, will he answer? At least he will tomorrow.

The FiveThirtyEight blogger/statician announced yesterday that he’ll be taking tomorrow on Reddit’s AMA. There’re already nine posts heralding the overlord of the Internet and wondering if he’ll answer whether he really is a witch. People like to speculate on Silver’s predictions being mixed with magic after late-night photos featuring one of the many hats he wears.
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Obama's First Post-Election Cabinet Meeting: Primary Purpose "To Say Thank You," But "A Lot of Work To Do."

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Obama on Tarmac

The overall message from President Obama about the fate of his cabinet in the new term? Thanks.

Giving a few words prior to their meeting on-air, President Obama was thankful for the service of his current  cabinet after a tough campaign.

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GQ's Least Influential Skirts The White House

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First Family

Can we really claim Michelle Obama is the seventh least influential person in the world? Does that mean she’s more or less influential than pop earworms like Gotye or the constant influence of Madonna on the world stage? If Mitt Romney is first is that because he lost the 2012 election or because he’s barely recognized while at a CVS?

These are the sorts of questions that plague us as we go through all 25 choices on GQ’s list of The Least Influential People of 2012. The list’s a mix of pop culture mainstays, but the additions of the political choices seem to sting a bit much. Especially when going after the First Lady:

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Ann Hand Obama Inaugural Pin Revealed

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No self-respecting Washingtonian doesn’t have an Ann Hand pin in their repertoire so it is with great excitement that we reveal her Inaugural pin which also benefits the USO. It is the 4th Inauguration pin she has made, and last year there was a real scramble in the final days to find one.  Please notice Vice President Biden is on it as well. 2016 is on everyone’s mind. Haddad Media’s current favorite Ann Hand item is the flag bracelet.  You can order both now at  http://annhand.homestead.com/new.html

How Did MSNBC "Win" The Election Coverage?

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Joe Scarborough & Mika Brzezinski

If Nate Silver won the official election of who’s right, then who took home the popular vote? If you ask Brian Stelter, it was clearly MSNBC.

In a parallel from from years ago, it seems like the 24-hour news channel has bulked up and turned itself around since the last presidential election. The channel’s rough start as “a CNN also-ran to an Anti-Fox” came to a huge change for the 2012 election as channel has morphed into a true counter-brand to Fox News. It required a four-year re-branding message, including a series of ads where notable on-air talent like Chris Matthews, Ed Schultz and Rachel Maddow stand before historic or iconic images–not to mention most were originally shot by Spike Lee.

It could be that the tides are changing, as even Variety has Fox News as a major winner and loser on election night. Buried almost the the end in the lavish praise comes the always tantalizing anonymous sources familiar with all manners of media matter.  Supposedly The Washington Post’s Ezra Miller is being eyed for a possible weekend show along with Chris Hayes, or the coveted 8pm slot.  But that’s neither how, now or why. What’s important is recognizing that MSNBC is skewing itself to a younger market. Whether they’re accomplishing it by not having real-time debate reactions like CNN or eshewing making everything as “Extreme” as Fox News is still up in the air. There’s a shift to get rid of the old weekend documentaries (the “Lockup” series included) and tune to constant political coverage, or even discussion like The Cycle which kicks off seven hours of specialized talking heads.

Either way, it seems like Fox News may have inadvertently followed the plot of Mean Girls too closely. The only question worth answering in the follow-up must be which network is Lindsey Lohan and which is Rachel McAdams. Maybe we’ll find out at next year’s White House Correspondents Dinner?

After The Election, Biden Heads to Parks and Recreation

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Vice President Joe Biden and David Axelrod

Now that the election is over, we can get Vice President Joe Biden to where he really needs to be–meeting  Leslie Knope.

Or, to be more precise, Amy Poehler on the set of Parks and Recreation for their upcoming episode. The fifth season premiere featured Poehler (who plays the recently elected city councilwoman Knope) in D.C. with cameos from Senator John McCain, Barbara Boxer and Olympia Snowe. But for the November 15th episode, Vice President Biden shows up in the cold open according to Entertainment Weekly.

It’s no secret in the show that Knope has a crush on Biden, but it turns out the cameo was harassed by Beltway politics:

Once the producers committed to shooting an episode in D.C., the process of landing Biden was “so much less difficult than we ever possibly imagined,” says Schur, noting: “His staff really loves the show, and he apparently had watched the show with his family and his family liked it… The hardest part was keeping it secret for so long because there’s all these FEC rules and equal-time rules. We couldn’t air it before the election because it was the equivalent of a campaign contribution to advertise for one candidate.”

This is far from the first time that the vice president has appeared on TV. He’s read the Top Ten on Letterman, shown up constantly on Hardball, Meet the Press and The Daily Show. But this is the third time that he’s ever appeared on a scripted television show. The second was Robert Altman’s sequel to Tanner ’88, the Sundance Channel mini-series Tanner on Tanner. But the first? Way back in 1993, then Senator of Delaware, Biden appeared as himself on the PBS game show Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? to offer the host some support:

Greg: Hello?
Joe Biden: Greg, Senator Joe Biden here.
Greg: Oh, hey, Senator.
Joe: I just wanted to let you know that I proposed a Congressional resolution naming you “The Best Detective of the Year”.
Greg: Why thank you, sir.
Joe: But some people were more comfortable with “Best Detective of the Month”.
Greg: Uh-huh.
Joe: And a few preferred “Best Detective of the Work Week”. Then someone suggested “best” is an awfully strong word, so we decided to name you “The Somewhat-Notable Detective of the Next 12 Minutes”. Congratulations, Greg.
Greg: Thank you very much, sir. Thank you. Good-bye. Thank you.

We can only hope he suggested the same when the episode airs next week.