the kicker

Beltway™ — Eat Fresh!

November 6, 2009

Earlier today, a gaggle of journos engaged in something that’s become a right of passage for Fourth Estaters of the political-establishment variety: dining with President Obama.

Today’s inductees into the “Potluck With POTUS” club include, per Politico’s Michael Calderone:

CNN’s David Gergen, Washington Post’s Chris Cillizza, Newsweek’s Jon Meacham and Howard Fineman, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Cynthia Tucker, POLITICO’s Mike Allen, NPR/Fox’s Mara Liasson, Talking Points Memo’s Josh Marshall and a trio from the New York Times: David Brooks, Andy Rosenthal, and Gail Collins.

Also on hand were West Wing press folk David Axelrod, Anita Dunn, Bill Burton, and Robert Gibbs.

While it’s notable that Marshall, the proto-blogger-reporter, was invited to the event…less notable was what actually went on as the luncheon played out. Here is the delightfully revealing summary of the event, per Calderone: “The off-the-record lunch lasted about two hours, and included a green salad, salmon and and apple tart for dessert.”

Aaaaand…scene.

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Megan Garber is an assistant editor at the Nieman Journalism Lab at Harvard University. She was formerly a CJR staff writer.