Are we in the Ditch and with the Ritch?

(POTUS by the pool)

Seemingly the last pool report posted on the White House website was back in early 2009, and it was a stopgap measure, according to responses to enquiries made at that time by Gawker.com. A “pool report” is written for other reporters by those allowed to accompany important folks to certain events. The pool report is sent first to the WH Media Affairs Office, forwarded to the wider press, then rehashed and might appear on news wires like AP, and then turn up in your local daily paper and/or its online version.

Here then—in all their naked glory, but with the long list of event attendees’ names dropped—are the pool reports for this evening’s Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee fundraiser in Los Angeles:

Motorcade departed at 6:10 Pacific time from the Beverly Hilton, speeding down Century City and Olympic boulevards, where Angelenos snapped cell phone pictures and waved. One held a small sign proclaiming, “We need jobs,” but this was a friendly crowd. Motorcade turned onto Hudson Avenue, passed lush lawns and lovely houses to the home of John Wells, producer of television shows such as West Wing, ER and China Beach.

The 10-minute ride brought us to a landscaped front yard that was more English garden then lawn, with topiaries, paths, and a fountain with a large great blue heron spouting water.

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The event has raised $1 million. Entry was $2,500, but co-hosts, such as JJ Abrams, Steven Spielberg and Kate Capshaw, Cindy and Alan Horn, Marilyn and Jeffrey Katzenberg (not actually here), Janet and Tom Unterman and Barbra Streisand (not actually here) paid $30,400 a couple.

First the scene: the pool was ushered back through the Wells’ estate and onto a veranda overlooking a walled courtyard with a pool, surrounded by grass lawn, manicured lemon trees, sage, rose bushes and Japanese maples. The crowd milled around, drinking wine brought by waiters. A string quartet stood down as first Chris Van Hollen spoke, then Nancy Pelosi, who praised “a very, very successful event,” then introduced Potus.

He bound on to a brightly lit stage at 7:22, the air cool, the sun softening, and declared, “What a spectacular evening. Let’s just hang out.”

Speaking without notes or a teleprompter, Potus spoke of the tough times that greeted him. “This is exactly when you want to be president. This is why I ran, because we have the opportunity to shape history for the better.” He said keeping Congress in Democratic hands would be “my focus over the next several months.”

“I hope you understand why we’re here tonight. It’s not to take a picture with the president,” he said. “We’re here to make sure those who took the tough votes are rewarded.”

To the Hollywood crowd, he declared, “We have been able to deliver the most progressive legislative agenda -- one that helps working families -- not just in one generation, maybe two, maybe three.”

He then segued into the ditch imagery, when you want to go forward you shift to D, when you want to go backward, you shift to R, etc.

“Even as the other side wants to offer fear, we’re going to offer hope,” he concluded at 7:51, wrapping up a half-hour speech to loud applause.

He did not linger. The motorcade zipped back to Beverly Hills as the sun set over Olympic Boulevard. Good night, all.

Jonathan Weisman
Wall Street Journal

A few additional (and California-appropriately green themed) quotes from POTUS from his cool-of-the-evening remarks in L.A.’s ritzy Hancock Park district:

Recalling his event at ZBB Energy in Wisconsin earlier today (much, much earlier), Obama said he and congressional Democrats, through the stimulus bill, “made the biggest investments in clean energy in our history - building solar panels and wind turbines and advanced batteries.”

In an extended riff on reaching out to Republicans on major issues, Obama said “on energy, we’re willin to compromise on a whole bunch of issues, but we’ve got to have a strategy that starts to limit carbon, because we want those clean energy jobs here in the United States. Not in China. Not in Germany.”

(Note that this was the first time all day, including the visit to the battery plant, when Obama even referenced emissions limits. Also note that, even in California, your pool did not hear the President speak the words “climate change” or “global warming”.)

Jim Tankersley
Energy/environment reporter
Tribune Washington Bureau
L.A. Times/Chicago Tribune

Now, the thing that most irks me about this report is the line that begins: “Speaking without notes or a teleprompter...” It irks me because I’m sick to death of seeing the President on TV look like one of those midway clowns with its head turning to the left and right mechanically and its mouth open, waiting for someone to throw a ball in it. (Republicans, of course, like to throw word-bombs in the President’s mouth just for the fun of seeing him gag on what he originally said.)

Seemingly, if you’re rich enough, the midway clown will sometimes face the front and look directly at you, without reading off a teleprompter.

rosalea.barker@gmail.com

--PEACE—

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