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Obama Moving Day in Just Five Hours
Tweet Share on Facebook January 16, 2009 Comment (2)By Paul Bedard, Washington Whispers
The White House staff, some 93 cooks, ushers, and other aides, are expecting to have five hours to move President Bush out of the executive mansion and move in the Obama family, says former longtime chief usher Gary Walters. "The house is literally transformed into a home" for the new president's family, he says. At a conference hosted by the White House Historical Association, Walters says that once the Bush goods are put on a moving van and shipped out, the Obama goods will be unpacked and put in closets and drawers. The staff will also put up pictures of the new first family and stock the foods they have chosen to eat.
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Hillary Clinton Lauded by German Ambassador
Tweet Share on Facebook January 16, 2009 CommentBy Paul Bedard, Washington Whispers
Even before Sen. Hillary Clinton takes over in Foggy Bottom, she's getting high marks. German Ambassador Klaus Scharioth, appearing at the Clinton School of Public Service in Little Rock, Ark., called President-elect Barack Obama's pick to lead the State Department "a very good choice."
He noted that her appointment comes at a time when it appears that the Bush administration is re-engaging Europe. "I must say in all fairness that the Bush administration has stepped up cooperation with Europe, but we hope to tackle with the Obama team these that are very high on our list," said Scharioth in a lecture this week.
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Not All Bush Gifts Are Presidential
Tweet Share on Facebook January 15, 2009 Comment (2)By Paul Bedard, Washington Whispers
When the National Archives conducts a show-and-tell tomorrow of gifts that the first family has received from heads of state and others, it will include most of the nice and expensive items the Bushes plan to put in their new presidential library at Dallas's Southern Methodist University. But there are loads of others that the Bushes don't want but couldn't return because nonacceptance would have caused a international incident. Well, now we can tell you what's on that list, thanks to the State Department's Office of the Chief of Protocol.
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Cashing In on Obama—in Pictures
Tweet Share on Facebook January 15, 2009 CommentBy Paul Bedard, Washington Whispers
There seems to be no end to how Washington is trying to cash in on the inauguration of the new president, Barack Obama. At just two stops this week—a Wal-Mart in Leesburg, Va., and Washington's Union Station—we found ample evidence of the commercialization of the new president. But we start off with the first picture, the collection of trading cards just put out by Topps. The trading card company tells us it is printing 90 different cards of the new first family and administration. Next are two shots from the Wal-Mart in Leesburg. The following four are of stands inside Union Station, just three blocks from the platform where Obama will be sworn in as president. They are selling buttons, shirts, and cozy nylon caps. And the final touch: Ikea has a display inside Union Station of how it would outfit the Oval Office.
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Outgoing CIA Chief Hayden Plans Book, TV Job
Tweet Share on Facebook January 14, 2009 Comment (2)By Paul Bedard, Washington Whispers
CIA Director Michael V. Hayden is telling associates he has big plans for life after a long career in the spy business. The retired four-star Air Force general will come in from the cold to write more than one book, join corporate boards, deliver paid speeches, and perhaps catch on as a TV national security analyst. Even the garrulous George Tenet, a former CIA director who wrote a bestseller about his time at Langley, has avoided the cable news spotlight.
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A Revamped Washington Whispers Welcomes Pollster Zogby
Tweet Share on Facebook January 14, 2009 CommentBy Paul Bedard, Washington Whispers
Don't change that channel. Yes, we have a new Washington Whispers home page, dramatically changed. Today marks the latest shift to the Internet for Whispers—with many added features. Among them: our new "Obamameter" where national pollster John Zogby will regularly size up our new president's job performance and popularity; a look at past Whispers from the column's storied 75 years; a new video and podcast player; our regular Synovate eNation and Capitol Bobbles polls; and the upcoming pictorial feature Where's Nikki? where you guess which historic Washington site Whispers reporter Nikki Schwab is visiting.
Other additions include In Today's Hopper, a daily grab bag of newsy items that don't normally rise to the level of a full-blown story but are interesting nonetheless. Today's entry: the unofficial inaugural party calendar.
Let us know what you think: pbedard@usnews.com
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Sex and Politics in the City
Tweet Share on Facebook January 13, 2009 Comment (10)By Nikki Schwab, Washington Whispers
There's still a week before inauguration, and already celebrities are trickling into town, some for related do-gooder events. Sarah Jessica Parker and Matt Dillon were in Washington yesterday to bring attention to the plight of Iraqi refugees, especially those who worked for the Americans but were apparently unable to get help leaving Iraq even after they had become targets of violence. The stars hosted Refugees International's one-night showing of Betrayed, a play about three Iraqi translators who risked their lives to work at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad's Green Zone.
"I think there seems to be more concern about what we're going to do to get out of there and how we are going to get out of this mess that nobody is really thinking about the wreckage we are going to leave behind us," Dillon tells us. "It's a humanitarian crisis."
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Obama Action Hero: Even Michelle Has One
Tweet Share on Facebook January 13, 2009 Comment (3)By Paul Bedard, Washington Whispers
Barack Obama is becoming like Christmas to a whole slew of trinket makers. The latest: the Obama action figure from Jailbreak Toys. Coming on the heels of its popular Obama action figure are two new dolls—a HOPE action figure colored like the famous Shepard Fairey poster and a presidential disco-style Obama dolled up in a gold suit.
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Obama Online: Facebook Vs. MySpace
Tweet Share on Facebook January 12, 2009 Comment (6)By Paul Bedard, Washington Whispers
Americans are clearly eager to network with the new Obama administration online, but they're split over which site the new president's team should use. In the new Washington Whispers poll conducted by Synovate eNation, Facebook was slightly ahead of MySpace as the favored networking site. Two others, Twitter and the picture-post Flickr, barely registered.
The polling data showed that the division over Facebook and MySpace deepened in different age groups. Those ages 18 to 24 preferred Facebook 53 percent to 34 percent. And the 35-to-44 crowd did too, 55 percent to 34 percent. Also, the more post-high school education the poll participant had, the more Facebook was the choice.
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Whitney Houston Won't Be at Obama's Inaugural
Tweet Share on Facebook January 9, 2009 Comment (83)By Paul Bedard, Washington Whispers
We dined with diva Dionne Warwick last night at Washington's famed Italian bistro Teatro Goldoni, where she laid out her plans to host two major musical inaugural balls. "Oh, it's very exciting," said Warwick. While sipping pineapple juice before a veggie dinner salad of cherry tomatoes, Warwick detailed her two balls: One, called Legends, will be for the older crowd—those who know her music and that of planned performers Chaka Khan, the Temptations, Nancy Wilson, George Clinton, and Peter, Paul, and Mary. The other is called the Urban Ball and will include Ludacris, Big Boi of Outkast, Fantasia, and Cedric the Entertainer. Warwick pushed for the Urban Ball because she wanted to draw younger voters to Washington for the inauguration. "I really wanted to get these kids here to be part of this." You might recall that Ludacris wrote some nasty lyrics about Sen. John McCain.
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