This morning at 4:33 a.m. Politico published an urgent “news story” about puppets.

Seriously. STOP THE PRESSES.

Written by their design director, Bill Kuchman, and their Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist, Matt Wuerker, they introduce readers to President Obama and Mitt Romney puppets that they can print out on 8 1/2″ by 11″ paper (heavy paper works best, they insist) and then put the puppets together with tape. Will Scotch tape do?

The kicker: “With POLITICO’s presidential puppets, the future of the presidency is at your fingertips.”

Politico has some great ideas and hard working reporters. But of all the ideas they’ve had lately? This is clearly up there with the brightest minds in journalism. We can hardly wait for our weekend of puppet making to begin in preparation for Monday’s final presidential debate.

Matt Wuerker, the Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist for Politico, has released a new app that’s available for download in the iTunes store. It’s called “Obamagram” and it features a caricature of Barack Obama, drawn by Wuerker, who repeats ANYTHING you tell it. Just think of the wealth of opportunities that this app could unleash. Groups of right wingers making the app shout “NOBAMACARE” and lefties fulfilling personal fantasies by having POTUS talk dirty to them.

Wuerker tells FBDC, “I find the evolution of the media and also of cartooning really fascinating and this seemed like a fun opportunity to wander out on that new frontier a little.  There are other talking avatar apps out there, but this one was specifically designed to let people jump into the circus of the 2012 campaign and clown around on their own.”

We took it for a test drive this afternoon and, while it’s pretty cool, there are some flaws. The voice that repeats your phrases back to you isn’t in the voice of Obama. It sounds like the voice of a high pitched helium factory worker who got kicked in the balls. (Helium factories are a thing, right?) We also had a hard time recording what we wanted POTUS to say. The timing never quite worked out the way we wanted it to. We do like that you can share videos via Facebook and YouTube. For 99 cents, it’s a pretty fun thing to have on your phone.

Wuerker also tell us that if the app is successful, he intends “to be nonpartisan about this and quickly turn out a Romneygram App.” You can learn more about it here.

The Pulitzer Prizes were announced this afternoon. Noteworthy to Washington are Politico‘s political cartoonist Matt Wuerker; HuffPost‘s David Wood, who has been a national Washington-based reporter since 1980; AP Scribes include Matt Apuzzo, Adam Goldman, Eileen Sullivan and Chris Hawley. Apparently Wuerker is a little excited. Politico‘s Marty Kady wrote on Twitter, “Wuerker did a Cal Ripken-like run through the news room high fiving everyone. That was awesome.”

Check out the complete list…

JOURNALISM

Public Service – The Philadelphia Inquirer

Breaking News Reporting – The Tuscaloosa (Ala.) News Staff

Investigative Reporting – Matt Apuzzo, Adam Goldman, Eileen Sullivan and Chris Hawley of the Associated Press and Michael J. Berens and Ken Armstrong of The Seattle Times

Explanatory Reporting – David Kocieniewski of The New York Times

Local Reporting – Sara Ganim and members of The Patriot-News Staff, Harrisburg, Penn

National Reporting – David Wood of The Huffington Post

International Reporting – Jeffrey Gettleman of The New York Times (Gettleman is the East Africa Bureau Chief.)

Feature Writing – Eli Sanders of The Stranger, a Seattle (Wash.) weekly

Commentary – Mary Schmich of the Chicago Tribune

Criticism -Wesley Morris of The Boston Globe

Editorial Writing – No award

Editorial Cartooning – Matt Wuerker of POLITICO

Breaking News Photography – Massoud Hossaini of Agence France-Presse

Feature Photography – Craig F. Walker of The Denver Post

The National Press Foundation is doling out accolades.

Lucky and hardworking recipients include NBC News Chief Foreign Affairs Correspondent correspondent Andrea Mitchell, who will receive the 2010 Taishoff Broadcasting Award. Another award recipient is Politico‘s Matt Wuerker, who will receive $2500 for the 2010 Berryman Award for Editorial Cartooning.

Honorable Mentions for their work will go to WaPo‘s Tom Toles; MSNBC’s Daryl Cagle and Jimmy Margulies of The Record (New Jersey). Wuerker received an Honorable Mention last year; Margulies won the award in 2005.

Awards will be given at NPF’s 28th annual awards ceremony on March 1 at the Washington Hilton Hotel. Mitchell requested that the University of Pennsylvania receive the $5,000 honorarium associated with the award.

Politico’s Matt Wuerker, a 2009 finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, has won the Herblock Prize for editorial cartooning. Editor-in-Chief John Harris nominated him for the prize.

Read the internal memo from Deputy Managing Editor Erika Pontarelli Compart after the jump…

Read more

Politico reporters came together Saturday night at Local 16 to say goodbye to colleague Daniel Libit. A wonderful sendoff, we’re sure.

But a note to Politico partygoers: Politico reporter Manu Raju is not Italian. In the list the tipster sent to Fishbowl, Manu’s surname (as shown below) renamed him after a Spaghetti sauce. Perhaps it was the liquor talking – the time was 3:07 a.m. when the note was sent. Or maybe Raju has a nickname in the works.

Regardless, those in attendance, said an e-mail, included: “Tim Alberta, Josh Kraushaar, Tim Grieve, Andy Barr, Erica Lovely, Meagan Bond, Sydelle Moore, Michael Calderone, Paige Connor, Kendra Marr, Meredith Shriner, Glenn Thrush, Martin Kady, Andie Collier, Matt Wuerker, Manu Ragu [STET], Ken Vogel, Kim Kingsley, Jmart.”

Best wishes to Libit in the Windy City, wherever he lands. (At last mention, he said his resume was under review at a number of Starbucks).

> Update: A crime has been committed against FishbowlDC — most likely a reporting while intoxicated (RWI) crime. To be sure, this is a lesson to me not to trust some a–hole writing us at 3 a.m. inventing some party in his or her head. Actual partygoers (with their correct spellings) include: Tim Grieve, Manu Raju, Josh Kraushaar, Andie Coller, Erika Lovley, Tim Alberta, Kendra Marr, Sydelle Moore, Meagan Bond and Andy Barr. Memo to VandeHarris: This is your “Winning the Dawn?” A thank you to Libit for setting the record straight. Libit, by the way, found this whole thing “HILLLLLARIOUS.”

Harry Jaffe takes a look at the Politico’s cartoonist Matt Wuerker.

What distinguishes the Politico from its competitors–Roll Call and The Hill–is that it has chosen to hire and highlight a political cartoonist at a time when newspaper cartooning is a dying craft.

“It’s an anomaly,” Wuerker told me from his DC home. “I was shocked and surprised when I heard they were looking for a staff cartoonist. I was shocked again when they chose me.”

Politico cartoonist Matt Wuerker gives his take on the White House spin machine in his cartoon today: