White House Correspondents Insider

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

Trump Fails To Make State of the Union Ratings Great Again

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Donald Trump has been called the “ratings” President, because of his propensity to use the TV industry term to refer to his Presidential performance, and because he’s an ex-reality TV personality and producer. But based on Nielsen’s official ratings, the performance of his first State of the Union Address wasn’t exactly huge.

While it’s true that the ratings of Presidential State of the Union addresses have been trending downward in recent years, Trump’s first SOTU ranks only eighth in terms of viewers among the last 25 to be aired on the major broadcast and cable networks carrying it live, according to an analysis of Nielsen data.

ZIGNAL LABS REPORTS: Obama’s SOTU Draws Massive Twitter Response

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President Obama delivered his final State of the Union address on Tuesday and drew a massive response on Twitter. Zignal’s software tracked nearly one million mentions for the President during the speech.

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According to Zignal, twitter mentions for the address peaked around 6:30 to 7pm, towards the end of the President’s speech:

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Most of the top tweets of the night came from Obama’s official account, though satirical news site The Onion’s tweet also went viral:

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PAC Away Your Marco Rubio Water Bottle

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The speed at which Internet memes evolve works laterally to how D.C. can interpret them.

Marco Rubio’s meme has officially been bottled. The senator’s dry mouth took over the media after the State of the Union on Tuesday, now it’s coming for you. Since then it’s turned into a reflection of the media’s repetition of a drinking problem and has caused The Daily Caller to become arithmomanic. The Reclaim America PAC has gone one step farther:

The official Marco Rubio water bottle: for a $25 contribution you can “(s)end the liberal detractors a message that not only does Marco Rubio inspire you…he hydrates you too.” The product became available on Wednesday afternoon from Reclaim America, a PAC which Rubio started in 2009 while entertaining a potential 2012 run for office. No telling whether they’ll come out with other swag related to the senator’s recent decisions, such as his opposition to the Violence Against Women Act or the end of minimum wage laws.

Which is unfortunate since you can only get the Rubio water bottle by spending the minimum donation–technically not a wage, but who keeps tracks when it comes to PACs?

The Slurp Heard Around the SOTU

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Marco Rubio stole the entire show after President Obama gave an unanimously praised speech at the State of the Union. For the fifth time, the president remained on record but with a far sterner message to congress during and after his speech.

But before we go back to Obama, let’s focus on Senator Rubio. His “Watergate” broke out over Twitter:

On YouTube:

and the same joke repeated ad naseum. Despite President Obama’s repeated plea for a vote for victims of gun violence, for Sandy Hook and for those that struggle to vote–like 102-year old Desiline Victor–it would be Rubio who would capture the Internet’s attention. But that comes after a groundbreaking number of Tweets Per Minute (TPM) according to the official Twitter Blog.

They even provided a timeline in handy graph form:

But don’t think Obama got away without a fist-bump of his own. Over the closing minutes, as Obama went through the Capitol,he could be heard encouraging Representatives and Senators that everything “deserves a vote,” in calling back to his address.

YouTube's Interview with the President

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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.

Watch the entire video here:

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…]