Countdown to Crawford

A note from the bloggers: Countdown to Crawford exits

Johanna Neuman — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 17:36:40 -0800

This is the final post on Countdown to Crawford. Johanna Neuman and James Gerstenzang are heading to new ventures, spurred by the closing of the Los Angeles Times' Washington Bureau and the creation of a bureau -- smaller than the...

President Bush: the toll of the years

James Gerstenzang — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 15:11:51 -0800

Over a period of eight years in the White House, every president changes. The results are internal and external. Here are two pictures demonstrating the toll of the years on President George W. Bush: The hair more gray, the wrinkles...

Eight years of George W. Bush: a photo essay

Johanna Neuman — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 12:35:28 -0800

It started for Eric Draper at a Christmas Party at the governor's mansion in Austin in 2000. That's when the 30-something Associated Press photographer from Albuquerque, N.M., went up to Texas Gov. George W. Bush and told him, straight on,...

NYPost: "Laura's hot, but Dubya's not"

Johanna Neuman — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 10:37:01 -0800

The New York Post's Page Six, home to gossip about wanna-be celebrities and their cousins, the actually famous, disclosed today that First Lady Laura Bush is negotiating with publishers who are bidding on her memoirs. As one literary agent told...

Barack Obama at White House: The photos tell the story

Johanna Neuman — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 12:38:33 -0800

Outside the gates of the White House, tourists, school kids and even usually blase native Washingtonians gathered to catch a glimpse of history at today's meeting of the incoming and outgoing presidents. In the photo above, by Mark Wilson of...

Barack Obama to do the Colonnade walk at White House

Johanna Neuman — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 10:07:44 -0800

It will be a moment of history unlike any other, a transition not just from one president to another but from a shameful and long chapter of racial prejudice in American history to a new beginning. President-elect Barack Obama, the...

Bush White House gives one last gift to Wall Street

Johanna Neuman — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 08:09:19 -0800

Well maybe not the last. After all, there are still 71 days to go before the inauguration. But late Sunday, George W. Bush's administration scrapped its original $123-billion bailout of American International Group (AIG) and offered a new one, for...

Will handing over the keys to the White House be George W. Bush's finest hour?

Johanna Neuman — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 05:44:51 -0800

President Bush is hardly a fan of Barack Obama's policies. He warned during the recent meltdown on Wall Street that the way to help the American people was not to raise taxes on the wealthy as Obama has suggested but...

Barney the White House dog bites reporter; mad at liberal press bias?

Johanna Neuman — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 13:36:34 -0800

Barney the first dog bit a White House reporter today. Apparently it wasn't the first time. Jon Decker, a political reporter for Reuters, had just finished a live shot for MSNBC at 10:35 a.m. when he spotted Barney and his...

President Bush lets emotions show while thanking White House staff

James Gerstenzang — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 12:53:08 -0800

It was an emotional moment for President Bush, and his face showed the strain. The election was two days in the past. He came out on the White House South Lawn under cloudy skies, the Washington autumn morning damp and...

Rahm Emanuel takes job; what makes great White House chief of staff?

Johanna Neuman — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 12:39:37 -0800

After Rep. Rahm Emanuel of Illinois today agreed to become Barack Obama's White House chief of staff, praise came from an unexpected quarter. Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, who was at John McCain's side almost every day of...

Danger ahead at Barack Obama's White House?

James Gerstenzang — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 07:50:14 -0800

Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the White House has become a jumble of construction equipment and fencing in anticipation of the assembly of a reviewing stand for the parade marking Barack Obama's inauguration as president on Jan. 20. But this...

The Bush memoirs: Would you buy a book from this man?

Johanna Neuman — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 07:02:49 -0800

Bill Clinton got a $15-million advance to write his memoir, "My Life." And he was a president who'd been impeached for an embarrassing dalliance in the Oval Office. But publishers told the Associated Press' Hillel Italie that George W. Bush...

Bush's highs and lows with black Americans

Johanna Neuman — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 10:58:20 -0800

President Bush has had a rocky relationship with black Americans. True, he appointed popular retired Gen. Colin Powell to his Cabinet, making him the first black secretary of State in history. He installed Condoleezza Rice as his national security advisor...

Did George W. Bush hear those cheers for Obama outside the White House last night?

Johanna Neuman — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 10:07:19 -0800

It was a spontaneous eruption of civic joy, an unrehearsed decision by more than 1,000 to gather in front of the White House last night to celebrate the historic election of Barack Obama, the nation's first black president. Young people...