InTheCapital

Obama Tests Out Chairs in the Oval Office

By Charlie Warzel / @cwarzel

Sure, Mitt Romney or Newt Gingrich could make a serious run at Barack Obama and win this coming October…but they sure as hell won’t be dishing out orders and posing for photos in the Oval Office. According to reports from The Washingtonian, the storied Executive office in the West Wing may be out of commission for a bit.

From the Washingtonian:

While the exterior of the White House has had a lot of repair work done and the press room underwent a thorough renovation, other parts of the West Wing are old, weary, and need to be upgraded.

And it could take some time, too. A source told the Washingtonian that renovations could take up to a year to get done. Further proof that when you do construction at the White House, you don’t mess around. The source also added that most of the West Wing aside of the Situation Room (how else will we hunt the terrorists?) will be out of play as well. Of course, White House liaison, Gregory Mecher made sure to be as vague as possible in a classic, robot-like email on the subject. ““As we have done since the project began, GSA will continue to keep the public abreast of this project as it moves forward.”

But hey…we’re getting ahead of ourselves. We still have a Republican Primary and a General Election to deal with. Mitt is excited about it. Are you?

Images: www.doobybrain.com

www.mittromneyisatool.com

By Charlie Warzel / @cwarzel

Wanna buy a 2005 Chrysler? What if I were to tell you it’s none other than the one driven by our Commander and Chief, Barack Obama? And then, what if I told you it cost $1 million? Yeah…it’s not exactly a steal.

If you happen to be a serious fan of Barack Obama (and rolling in cash) this might be of some interest to you…although I’m having a hard time seeing why. Apparently, the car, which is a supercharged Hemi V8, was drawing some negative press for the then-candidate. Feeling the heat, Obama traded it in for a hybrid Ford Escape. Still masculine, but a little less of a guzzler. 

The owner says he/she can prove Obama owned the car, as the Illinois title has Barack’s name on it, but there was no picture of the title or anything to indicate Obama’s ownership on the site. So, uh…buyer beware, I suppose. There are a load of pics of the vehicle on the ebay posting, which you can see here.

Here is part of the description from the owner.

2005 Chrysler 300C - owned by President Barack OBAMA. We have the original paperwork and the title showing this vehicle was actually used by Barack. 19,000 miles driven by the Obama - many highway miles back & forth to Springfield while he was an Illinois State Senator.  

It is safe to say that President Obama has the full support of Silicon Valley and the giants of tech. The proof is in the monster announcement today for Technology for Obama, which is affectionately abbreviated as ‘T4O’. This group is a powerhouse of tech giants and founders who are banding together to raise campaign cash and, most likely, assist with creating a formidable digital campaign structure and proprietary code. The group of co-chairs includes Sean Parker, of Napster and Facebook fame, Reid Hoffman co-founder of LinkedIn, Jeremy Stoppelman from Yelp, Craigslist namesake and founder, Craig Newmark, and Marc Benioff  of Salesforce.com.

Did your eyes just roll back into your head a little bit? Perhaps your jaw hit the floor? This is a mammoth development from the campaign as this group of committee co-chairs has loads of money, even more influence, and a LOT of access to top development talent. 

Here’s a little on the net worth of some of the co-chairs:

Reid Hoffman - $1.5 billion

Sean Parker - $2.1 billion

Marc Benioff - $1.9 billion

Craig Newmark - $400 million

Jeremy Stoppelman - $222 million

That’s a lot of cash.

Here’s a bit from the Obama Campaign’s website:

Technology for Obama (T4O) seeks to activate an influential fundraising and operational group from the broad technology community. Through national, regional, and online activities,T4O will work to rally the tech community to endorse, and to commit time and talent to the campaign. T4Owill supply participants with information, contacts and inspiration for further involvement and to provide significant financial support for the re-election of President Barack Obama. If you work, support, or identify with technology then you should join T4O!

If you also have a ton of cash and an interest in helping the Obama campaign’s tech strategy, you can donate as well. There will also be ameeting in San Francisco tonight, where the big dogs will talk on a panel and explain how they are banding together to create a tech infrastructure and cash pool the likes of which have never been seen before.

[Lead Image via USA Today]

By Charlie Warzel / @cwarzel

The guest list is out for the First Lady’s box tonight at the State of the Union address and it appears that the White House is giving Instagram and other innovators some love.

Mike Krieger, a co-founder of Instagram will be in attendance. President Obama recently joined Instagram late last month. It’s important to note that Krieger is actually of Brazilian descent and looking for his green card. Krieger is an example of the type of innovators mentioned by Steve Case in his op-ed yesterday, who would benefit from the passage of the Startup Act and AGREE. This is a good indicator that Obama may very well mention these two bills in his speech tonight.

Also in attendance is Laurene Powell Jobs, wife of the late Apple founder, Steve Jobs. She is currently the founder of The Emerson Collective.

It is common for the First Lady to invite a myriad of guests to the first union, from veterans to average citizens. Krieger and Jobs are just two of many to attend this evening.

Here are the bios the White House released. 

Mike Krieger
Co-founder Instagram
San Francisco, California

Mike Krieger is the co-founder of Instagram, the fastest growing social mobile startup in the U.S. today, with over 15 million registered users. Mike was born in São Paulo, Brazil, and moved to California in 2004 to attend Stanford University, where he studied computer science and cognitive science. In 2010, he joined up with Kevin Systrom to co-found Instagram, and now employs a talented, growing team of designers and engineers. After graduation, Mr. Krieger worked for a year on his student F-1 visa, later applying for and receiving an H-1B visa as a high-skill worker. Mr. Krieger wants to permanently stay in the U.S. and has applied for a green card.

Laurene Powell Jobs
Founder and Chair of Emerson Collective
Palo Alto, California

Ms. Laurene Powell Jobs is founder and chair of Emerson Collective, an organization focused on harnessing the potential of individuals from underserved communities to help them build a better life.

Ms. Powell Jobs also serves as president of the board of College Track, an after-school program she founded in 1997 to prepare underserved high school students for success in college. Started in East Palo Alto, College Track has expanded to serve students in Oakland, San Francisco, New Orleans and Aurora, Colorado. The program’s intensive academic and extracurricular program is designed to ensure admittance to and graduation from college. All of the program’s graduates have completed their secondary education and gone on to college.

In addition to her work with the Emerson Collective and College Track, she serves on the boards of directors of NewSchools Venture Fund, New America Foundation and Conservation International. She also serves as a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Ms. Powell Jobs holds a BA and a BSE from the University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business. Earlier in her career, she spent several years working in investment banking and later co-founded a natural foods company in California.

Source: http://thepage.time.com/2012/01/24/guest-list-for-the-first-ladys-box/#ixzz1kP88FD2z

By Charlie Warzel / @cwarzel

President Obama knows what the kids like. He fist-bumps, says things like, ‘nah, we straight’, and he loves him some internets. Obama has always jumped on the social media bandwagon to get his message out and connect with the voters and on Jan 30th he plans to take YouTube questions in a Google + hangout. That’s right, hangin’ loose with Barack. Video below:

Mashable first reported the news on the Executive hang:

People can submit questions about any topic via video or text using YouTube’s Moderator tool, and Obama will answer the top-voted ones. YouTube also will invite a select few to join the Google+ Hangout, which will come on the heels of Tuesday’s State of the Union address. Viewers can watch the Hangout on the White House’s website, Google+ page (which launched Jan. 20 and now has more than 17,000 followers) or YouTubechannel.

Obama’s online community events have done notoriously well. In 2011, Obama received 140,000 questions during a YouTube question session, His Twitter town hall this summer attracted over 90,000 tweets and 61,000 questions, too…which is…a lot. 

It’s important to note is how much the current administration is doubling down on social media initiatives in the past year. This is his first interaction with Google +, which he joined only recently, but he’s held events with Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn and even joined Instagram recently. Obama will definitely not be the only candidate to engage heavily on social media this year, but it appears he might be the first one to do it in new and interesting ways. 

President Obama shows some teeth at…Walt Disney World…wait, whaaa? This day in politics is BANANAS.

@BuzzFeedBen notes that perhaps a ‘fantasy land’ isn’t the best venue for a Political speech…we agree.

[photo via Reuters]

By Charlie Warzel / @cwarzel

Oh, how we love us some good ole fashioned political bickering. The battle for the general election seems to be shaping up (read: is all but decided) for a Romney v. Obama showdown and with it will be come some finger-pointing, accusations, and hopefully some bulging forehead veins. Like in many areas this campaign season, the candidates have taken to the information superhighway to get their message heard. As the New York Times reports today, Mitt struck first in what will surely be the first of many Twitter skirmishes with David Axelrod responding acerbically.

In fact, it started innocently enough, just after noon, with a Twitter posting from @MittRomney, the Mitt Romney Twitter account.

@MittRomney Mitt Romney

More Americans have lost their jobs under@BarackObama than any president in modern history. http://t.co/CyCSpY9M

Mon Jan 16 17:27:13 via Mitt Romney

A few hours later, David Axelrod, the longtime strategist for President Obama, offered up a reply to Mr. Romney.

@davidaxelrod David Axelrod

. @MittRomney A picture’s worth a thousand misleading words. This chart tells the story.http://bit.ly/z4V0Us

Mon Jan 16 20:19:30 via David Axelrod

Mr. Axelrod included a link to a graph on the Obama campaign’s Web site, which cited the Bureau of Labor Statistics to show 22 consecutive months of job growth.

Axelrod has often proved himself to be a quick and incisive defender of Obama in the public forum (it is his job)…we at InTheCapital especially enjoy his use of ‘Dude’ to attempt to disarm top Romney advisor, Eric Fehrnstrom. For the record, there were over a dozen back and forth tweets between them on the subject. 

@davidaxelrod David Axelrod:

@EricFehrn Dude, none of my business, but shouldn’t you be in debate prep instead of trying to explain yourself to me?

This tactic is, of course, known as the ‘bro defense’, whereby one member of the argument invokes the use of the informal, ‘dude’ to seem like he/she doesn’t care as much about the subject at hand, thereby making him/her (Axelrod, in this case) seem, like, totally cooler. A savvy play indeed by Axe.

By Charlie Warzel/ @cwarzel