TIPS FROM THE POOL…INTO THE DEEP END

NYT White House Correspondent Jackie Calmes, who has been covering President Obama’s fundraiser at actor George Clooney‘s home for the past 24 hours, issued an early morning Pool Report after calling a photo-travel lid at 2:32 a.m. Calmes wrote the new report (#11) to correct what was supposed to be an amusing anecdote the President told at last night’s soirée regarding his Hope poster and Clooney being photoshopped out of a picture. In her report she quote’s the AP’s Jim Kuhnhenn, who clears up the error.

“According to the AP and its White House reporter, fellow pooler Jim Kuhnhenn, Potus erred on Thursday night in telling donors at George Clooney’s house his anecdote about the iconic ‘Hope’ poster of the 2008 presidential campaign. Potus said artist Shepard Fairey had based his design on a photo in which then-Sen. Obama appeared alongside Clooney at an event on the humanitarian crisis in Darfur (leading Potus to quip that it was the first and last time that Clooney had ever been ‘photo-shopped’ from a photo).

Here’s how Jim describes the reality:
‘In fact, the artist who created the poster, Shepard Fairey, used another photograph of Obama but said he relied on the Obama-Clooney picture to avoid a copyright infringement case with The Associated Press. He pleaded guilty in February to criminal contempt for fabricating and destroying evidence.’”

It’s ugly time once again for NJ and Politico.

On Jan. 25 from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. NJ, in conjunction with The Atlantic, will host a State of the Union debriefing at the National Press Club. The description: “Our interlocutors —James Bennet of The Atlantic, Ron Brownstein of National Journal, Jackie Calmes of the New York Times, and Major Garrett of National Journal in addition to our audience — will put Republican and Democratic Hill leadership in the hot seat to dissect the President’s address, assessing how President Obama’s case statement for the year will impact November’s outcomes.”

Meanwhile, on that very morning, Politico is also hosting a State of the Union debriefing. Theirs is being held at the W from 8 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. Politico‘s invitation doesn’t list their guests, but we have a feeling Mike Allen will be all over it. UPDATE: We checked in with Politico’s event staff. They’re not releasing their names just yet. Stay tuned…

We’re cutting to the chase. No flowery intro needed to delve into a topic we know you’ve awaiting all week long: the number of mushroom heads that will appear on this weekend’s political talk shows. As usual, MSNBC’s Chris Matthews wins the consistency award for having two females on his panel.

CBS’s “Face the Nation”: 0

The interview will be with GOP presidential front runner Herman Cain.

(Fittingly for this roundup, Slate and CBS’s John Dickerson will provide analysis.)

ABC’s “This Week”: 1

Former Maj. Leader Dick Armey (R-Texas), George Will, WaPo and ABC News, Cokie Roberts, ABC News, Austan Goolsbee, former Chairman, Obama  Council of Economic Advisers.

NBC’s “The Chris Matthews Show”: 2

Bob Woodward, WaPo
Andrea Mitchell, NBC News
John Heilemann, New York Magazine
Katty Kay, BBC

FNC’s “Fox News Sunday”: 2 Proudly blacklisted by Fox News PR since June 2010. We’ll bring this to you as soon as hell freezes over or sooner as the case may be. In any case, they usually permit one female on their panel, typically NPR’s Mara Liasson. UPDATE: Indeed, Liasson is on the panel, as is former White House Press Sec. Dana Perino, Brit Hume and Juan Williams. (h/t Mike Allen’s Politico Playbook)

CNN’s “Reliable Sources”: 2

Jennifer Rubin, columnist, WaPo, Roger Simon, chief political columnist, Politico, John Aravosis,  liberal political blogger, AMERICAblog.com, Glynnis MacNichol, editor of Business Insider’s media page “The Wire”, Paul Farhi, media reporter for WaPo, Jeff Jarvis, author, “Public Parts”; founder, BuzzMachine.com

WETA’s “Washington Week” with Gwen Ifill and National Journal: 3

Jackie Calmes, NYT
Janet Hook, WSJ
John Dickerson, Slate, CBS News and John Harwood, CNBC and NYT

President Obama just wrapped up his first official press conference on the Gulf Coast oil spill. It lasted about an hour.

After about ten minutes of remarks, the President took questions. Up first was the AP’s Jennifer Loven who asked if the President has been personally involved enough. “This has been our highest priority,” Obama responded.

Brian Williams, Harry Smith and George Stephanopoulos anchored special coverage on NBC, CBS and ABC. Chuck Todd, Jake Tapper and Chip Reid all also reported from the WH East Room.

After Loven, Tapper, Todd, McClatchy’s Steve Thomma, Reid, Bloomberg’s Julianna Goldman, Helen Thomas, NYT‘s Jackie Calmes, EFE’s Macarena Vidal and Fox News’ Major Garrett got called on by the President for questions, in that order.

Thomas asked the first non-oil spill question, on Afghanistan. She asked Obama not to give her any “Bush-ist” too (not bullsh*t, calm down everyone). Calmes brought it back to oil spill. Garrett asked about the possible Sestak job offer from the administration- Obama promised an official response shortly, adding that nothing improper took place.

CNN, Fox News, and MSNBC also carried. WaPo‘s Chris Cillizza, who’s live-tweeting the press conference, tweeted “tough image for Obama…MSNBC goes with split screen: Obama on one side, oil pipe spewing into gulf on the other.”

White House deputy press secretary Bill Burton took on criticism that the President hasn’t had a press conference in a long time on Twitter today:

@billburton44: politico: photo w/ a caption saying potus hasn’t had a press conf in 10 mos – odd since it’s from his press conf 4 mos ago

@billburton44: Other recent press conf’s: 2/9 (in the WH briefing room – documented in the photo) & 4/13 (in DC at the Nuclear Summit)

And despite press corps complaints that Presidential press conferences have been lacking, Real Clear Politics’ Mike Memoli tweeted this pic, “Low turnout from press for this event. Dozens of empty seats.”

• NBC’s Meet the Press: General David Petraeus, Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R-MN), WaPo’s E.J. Dionne, WSJ’s Peggy Noonan, Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN), Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD).

• CBS’ Face the Nation: Exclusive interview with former Secretary of State Colin Powell.

• ABC’s This Week (with Terry Moran): Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R-CA), Gov. Edward Rendell (D-PA)and roundtable with George Will, Donna Brazile, Matthew Dowd and Arianna Huffington.

• CNN’s State of the Union (with Candy Crowley now): Gov. Jim Douglas (R) Vermont; Gov. Deval Patrick (D) Massachusetts; Sen. Evan Bayh (D-Ind.; Susan Molinari (R) former U.S. Representative, and former Democratic NJ Gov. Jon Corzine.

• Fox News’ Fox News Sunday: Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Governor Haley Barbour (MS-R), Gov. Jennifer Granholm, (D- Michigan) and Steve Grove, Head of News and Politics at YouTube.

• CNN’s Reliable Sources with Howard Kurtz: Christine Brennan, USA Today, ABC News contributor; Jason Whitlock, Kansas City Star; ESPN contributor; Lisa Bloom, CNN legal analyst

• Washington Week with Gwen Ifill and National Journal: Alexis Simendinger of National Journal, CNN’s Gloria Borger, Jackie Calmes of The New York Times and Politico’s Eamon Javers.

• CNN’s GPS with Fareed Zakaria: James Baker, former U.S. Secretary of State; Abu Bakr al-Qirbi, Yemeni Foreign Minister

• NBC’s The Chris Matthews Show: NBC News’ Savannah Guthrie, WaPo’s David Ignatius, NYT’s Helene Cooper, Politico’s John Harris.

• Bloomberg’s Political Capital with Al Hunt: Deficit committee co-chairmen Alan Simpson and Erskine Bowles, Bloomberg’s Rich Miller, Hans Nichols, Indira Lakshmanan, Margaret Carlson and Kate O’Beirne.

• Washington Watch with Roland Martin: Rep. Tom Price (R-GA), Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD) and John Boyd, Jr., president of the National Black Farmers Association.

• CNN’s Amanpour: Bernardo Alvarez Herrera, Venezuelan Ambassador to the U.S.; Michael Shifter, VP for policy and director of the Andean Program at the Inter-American Dialogue; Leopoldo Lopez Mendoza, former District Mayor of Caracas

• C-SPAN’s Newsmakers: Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.)