White House Correspondents Insider

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

Insider Round-Up for the Day After The Inauguration

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The Inaugural is over and now Capitol Hill can (supposedly) get back to business. Here’s what you need to read so you too can say, “What about the Al Roker snub?”

  • Al Roker got snubbed by ‘interviewed’ President Obama and Vice President Biden while walking to the parade box.
  • Photobombs were dropped left and right during the ceremonial swearing-in. From Bill Clinton to Joe Biden and even “Grumpy” Gohmert made an appearence.
  • At our event with Huffington Post and Third Way, we had Old Ebbitt Grill staples like mini-lobster rolls, chicken empanadas, tuna tartare, oysters, chorizo and manchengo…oh, the list goes on. Even the Inaugural Luncheon sounded good. While our event was fantastic according to Variety, the Inaugural Ball itself got the short end of the culinary stick with Presidential Cheez It.
  • The stars came out to the district according to Politico:

    “Guests who had less trouble getting to the event, held at the Harman Center for the Arts, included the Goo Goo Dolls, Richard Kind, Tim Daly, Melissa Leo (wearing a maroon velvet pantsuit), Evan Handler and Wayne Knight. Knight of ‘Seinfeld’ fame applauded President Barack Obama for speaking ‘from his heart’ during his inaugural address. Handler, known for his role on ‘Sex and the City,’ agreed. ‘He did a great job with his speech,’ the actor said.”

  • People were definitely not shouting “Boo-urns” at Rep. Paul Ryan according to the Huffington Post. (It was “Boo!”)
  • Beyoncé lip-synched at the Inaugural. Let the Internet go crazy!

    • The Running Of The Who's Who for 2013

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    The end of the year is for making lists and conjecture about who’ll be in charge come next term. Politico’s already started their weekly half-video/half column Behind the Curtain featuring Mike Allen and Jim Vandehei as they tackle the weeks that were–so far that means immigration and the rebranding of Marco Rubio and Paul Ryan.

    Buzzfeed, however, seems to be focused entirely on 2013 with today’s list of the 23 People Who Will Be Running Washington Next Year. This service comes complete with headshots that tell us whether we’re looking at a daytime regular on MSNBC, Fox or CNN–or to provide photographic evidence of Paul Ryan’s Michael Steel, pictured above.
    [Read more…]

    2012 Presidential Debates: Crowley and Raddatz Join Lehrer and Schieffer

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    Presidential elections are determined by a few important moments and most of those moments happen during presidential debates.

    The Commission on Presidential Debates, where Janet Brown serves as Executive Director, and co-chairs Frank Fahrenkopf and Mike McCurry rule,  announced their slate of moderators for the 2012 debates.   You can bet both campaigns are already pulling tapes of their interviews and previous debate performances to prepare for this years.  A hat tip to Martha Raddatz who’s war coverage will be great preparation for her role in the Vice Presidential Debate between VP Joe Biden and the newly named running mate to Mitt Romney, Rep. Paul Ryan.  There will be several changes to format which you can read about in the official announcement here.

    Fahrenkopf and McCurry quotes from the release, “The new formats chosen for this year’s debates are designed to focus big time blocks on major domestic and foreign topics.  These journalists bring extensive experience to the job of moderating, and understand the importance of using the expanded time periods to maximum benefit.  We are grateful for their willingness to moderate, and confident that the public will learn more about the candidates and the issues as a result.”

    This year’s debates – for the first time – will be available LIVE on line.