President Obama cracks jokes at elite Alfalfa Club dinner

Well, look who decided to come around! President Obama, whose White House years have been marked by a careful avoidance of so many black-tie Beltway traditions, attended the most elite of them all, the annual Alfalfa Club dinner, on Saturday.

Why? In his remarks at the Capital Hilton, to political and business heavyhitters who’d walked a gantlet of Occupy D.C. protesters to make it to their steak-and-lobster meal, the president explained:

“You’ve heard it from the pundits: ‘Obama is cloistered in the White House.’ ‘He’s aloof.’ ‘He’s in the bubble.’ ‘He’s not connecting.’ And that’s why one of my big goals this year was to get out and be among everyday, ordinary Americans — like the men and women of the Alfalfa Club.”

Ha ha! How everyday-ordinary were they? “I’d like to acknowledge a very good friend of mine,” he added, according to excerpts of his speech released by the White House. “Warren Buffett’s secretary’s boss is in the house.

Yes, it’s one of those jocular affairs. Obama also joked that he had “about 45 more minutes on the State of the Union that I’d like to deliver tonight,” and mused about his own “promising future — as an Al Green impersonator.”

It was the first time since 2009 that the president had attended the officially-off-the-record (but traditionally leaky) A-list conclave. But maybe he’s starting to like this stuff more? Last spring he attended his first Gridiron Dinner — a white-tie, elite media gala — since becoming president.

He was accompanied by the first lady, wearing something long, flowing and possibly red, according to a dispatch from a White House pool reporter who couldn’t get a good look in the dark.

Among the other VIPs reported to be in attendance: John Boehner, Mike Bloomberg, John Kerry, Pat Leahy, Steny Hoyer, Mark Warner, Steve Case, Cal Ripken and José Andrés.

Occupy DC demonstrators throw glitter on guests arriving at the Alfalfa Club dinner. (Jose Luis Magana/AP) Also: Joe Lieberman, who drew catcalls from the Occupy demonstrators who recognized him on his way in. Other tuxedoed guests were showered with glitter by the activists.

And Jeb and George H.W. Bush, frequent Alfalfa attendees, who spent time visiting with Obama on Friday afternoon.

A hallmark of the annual dinner is the club’s jokey “nomination” of a VIP guest as its candidate for president — this year, the former Florida governor.

“It is great to see Jeb Bush, who is accepting a nomination for President tonight,” Obama said. “I have to say, though, it’s not fair to tease your friends like that.”

What is the Alfalfa Club anyway? A power-broker’s fraternity (and sorority, now, since it admitted women in 1994) that now exists solely for the purpose of hosting this dinner. Always held on the last Saturday in January, it was founded in 1913 to honor the birthday of, er, Robert E. Lee. That fact gave Obama a decent zinger the last time he addressed the club in 2009. “If he were with us tonight, the general would be 202 years old,” the president joked, just days after his own historic inauguration. “And very confused.”

Updated. An earlier version of this story was published at 12 a.m.

Read also: Occupy D.C. contemplates McPherson decampment, protest Alfalfa Club dinner, 1/28/12

Read earlier: Alfalfa Club 2011; Bushes but no Obama to annual dinner, as POTUS skips black-tie affair for Axelrod farewell, 1/30/11

Alfalfa Club 2010; politicians joke at dinner; some oldies, some goodies, 2/1/10

Alfalfa Club 2009; Elite officially welcome Obama, 2/1/09

Obama gets laughs at first Gridiron Club dinner as president, 3/31/11

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Obama tangles with Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer over immigration book

PHOENIX — President Obama and Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer (R) appeared to exchange heated words in front of reporters and other public officials on Wednesday as Obama arrived in this Southwestern city for the second stop of his post-State of the Union tour.

The unusual confrontation--which included Brewer pointing her finger at Obama, and Obama walking away--centered on Brewer’s newly published account of a meeting she and Obama had at the White House in June, 2010, officials said.

Obama descended the stairs of Air Force One and was greeted by Brewer, who was waiting for him along with other politicians in a traditional receiving line. Brewer offered Obama a letter, which she later said was an invitation to sit down with her to discuss Arizona’s economic “comeback” and to join her for a tour of the U.S.-Mexican border.

The president told Brewer he would be happy to meet with her, a White House aide said, but also informed the governor that he thought she had been inaccurate in describing their earlier session in the Oval Office.

Brewer’s book, “Scorpions for Breakfast: My Fight Against Special Interests, Liberal Media, and Cynical Politicos to Secure the Border,’’ details her conservative approach to dealing with the state’s illegal immigration challenges. An review published in the Arizona Republic said that Brewer casts Obama as “condescending” and skewers him repeatedly. Although she originally described their Oval Office meeting as cordial, the newspaper said, “in the book she calls the president ‘patronizing’ and said ‘he lectured me.’ ”

Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer points at President Obama. (Haraz N. Ghanbari - AP)

“He didn’t feel that I had treated him cordially” in the book, Brewer told reporters Wednesday. “I said to him that I have all the respect in the world for the office of the president. The book is what the book is. I asked him if he read the book. He said he read the excerpt.”

She and Obama appeared to be talking over each other on the tarmac, as other Arizona officials looked on. The exchange ended when Obama abruptly walked away, as Brewer appeared to still be speaking.

Asked about the conversation, Brewer told the reporters that Obama was “a little disturbed” about her account of their meeting. A White House official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a private conversation, said Obama told Brewer she “inaccurately described the meeting in her book.”

Brewer said she told Obama that she was sorry he felt slighted “but I didn’t get my sentence finished.”

Just a day earlier, at the State of the Union Address, Obama had a much warmer exchange with an Arizona politician from his own party, Rep. Gabrielle Giffords.

But with Brewer, one of the nation’s most outspoken critics of federal immigration policy, what was supposed to be a standard photo-op quickly morphed into a confrontation.

“I thought we probably would’ve talked about the things that were important to him and important to me, helping one another,” Brewer said later. “Our country is upside down. Arizona was upside down. But we have turned it around. I know again that he loves this country and I love this country.”

After ending the exchange with Brewer, Obama moved on in the receiving line, where he was greeted without incident by Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton and Mesa Mayor Scott Smith. He then headed for an Intel factory that manufactures microprocessors.

“Anyway, we’re glad he’s here,” a shaken Brewer said. “I’ll regroup.”

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Obama outlines incentive plan to reduce college tuition costs

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Obama outlines incentive plan to reduce college tuition costsText SizePrintE-mailReprints By David Nakamura and Daniel de Vise,

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — President Obama offered a plan Friday to reduce the costs of higher education by increasing the amount of federal grant money available in low-interest loans and tying it directly to colleges’ ability to reduce tuition.

In an impassioned speech before 4,000 students at the University of Michigan, Obama delivered an election-year pitch to the type of youthful audience that buoyed his 2008 campaign, saying his administration was putting colleges “on notice” that they must rein in soaring prices.

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“You can’t assume you’ll just jack up tuition every single year,” Obama said to cheers at Glick Field House, the school’s indoor football facility. “If you can’t stop tuition going up, your funding from taxpayers will go down. We should push colleges to do better; we should hold them accountable if they don’t.”

Obama’s proposal would significantly boost federal investment in the Perkins loan program from $1 billion to $8 billion and revamp the formula for distributing the money. Under the plan, colleges would be rewarded based on their success in offering relatively lower tuition prices, providing value and serving low-income students, the White House said.

The administration also is proposing to provide $1 billion in aid to states that curb higher education costs and to create a competition that provides $55 million in start-up funding for higher education institutions to pursue innovation to boost productivity.

However, most of the plan would require congressional approval, and Republicans have objected to adding expensive new proposals at a time of spiraling national debt. White House officials said the Perkins loan portion of the president’s plan would not cost taxpayers additional dollars because students pay off the aid money with interest.

Obama’s appearance in Ann Arbor was the final stop of a three-day tour of five battleground states that aimed to build public support for the goal laid out in his State of the Union address this week of building an economy that offers more equity and opportunity for the middle class.

That message will frame the president’s reelection argument, and his focus on taming higher education costs echoes one of the central concerns of the Occupy Wall Street protests over the past year. Last fall, Obama announced a strategy to consolidate federal student loans and reduce interest rates to help college graduates pay off their debt.

In his remarks, Obama said access to higher education was a critical tool for young people eager to “do well enough to raise a family, own a home, send your own kids to college.”

“That’s what you’re striving for, what the American dream is all about,” he said. “How we keep that issue alive is the defining issue of our time. We do not want to be in a country that looks to success for only a small group of people. We want to be a country where everybody has a chance.”

Higher-education leaders praised the bulk of the president’s proposals. Obama also called on Congress to turn back a proposed doubling of the 3.4 percent interest rate on federal Stafford loans. And he is seeking to create a “College Scorecard” for every institution that is designed to present information about cost, graduation rates and future earnings in an “easy-to-read” format. The federal government has already taken steps in this direction with its College Navigator web site.

Analysts said Obama’s plan probably would not affect the flow of federal Pell grants, the largest source of federal college aid, intended for low-income students.

But there is one potential drawback to the president’s plan: Punishing some colleges by denying them federal aid would affect needy students if those schools are unable to reduce costs.

“Do you take money away from low- and middle-income students and families because you are unhappy with the institution?” said Terry Hartle, senior vice president of the American Council on Education.

Average sticker price at private nonprofit colleges has doubled to $28,500 since the late 1980s, in inflation-adjusted dollars, according to the College Board. But the “net” price of college, after factoring in student aid, is essentially flat over the past five years and has risen at a much slower pace.

Higher-education officials question how the administration would determine whether a college is holding the line on tuition fees.

Colleges might be asked to limit net tuition increases to, say, 3 percent a year to avoid losing aid. But, the educators asked, would the president punish a public college that raised tuition to compensate for lost state subsidies? What if a college with historically low tuition approved a steep increase to avoid operating at a loss?

“That starts to get pretty sticky when you start to think of actual metrics,” said Haley Chitty, spokesman for the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators.

De Vise reported from Washington.

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Obama exchange with Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer reveals his testy side

Obama exchange with Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer reveals his testy side - The Washington Post Print SubscriptionConversationsToday's PaperGoing Out GuideJobsCarsReal EstateRentalsClassifiedsHomePoliticsCampaign 2012CongressCourts &LawThe Fed PageHealth CarePollingWhite HouseBlogs & ColumnsIssues: EnergyTop Blogs

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Obama exchange with Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer reveals his testy sideView Photo Gallery — ?President Obama’s reelection campaign is raising money and reaching out to voters and volunteers.

Text SizePrintE-mailReprints By David Nakamura and Rachel Weiner,

AURORA, Colo. — President Obama’s raw exchange with the governor of Arizona on an airport tarmac this week did more than overshadow his carefully stage-managed road trip to trumpet his State of the Union goals.

The discussion revealed a testy side of the president’s personality that is at odds with his public image as “no-drama Obama,” reviving criticism that he is unwilling to be second-guessed — or to even entertain another point of view.

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Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer defended herself after a contentious exchange with President Obama Wednesday about her book "Scorpions for Breakfast." Brewer was photographed pointing her finger towards the president. (Jan. 26)

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Shortly after stepping off Air Force One on Wednesday in Phoenix, Obama challenged Gov. Jan Brewer (R) over characterizations she made of him in a recent book. His reaction, coming one day after he used his State of the Union address to call for a renewed spirit of political bipartisanship amid the nation’s economic woes, has exposed him to accusations that he is not interested in working with Republicans.

Brewer, whose “Scorpions for Breakfast” faults Obama for pandering to Hispanic voters in his immigration policy, said the president mentioned the book, unprompted, after she invited him to meet with her to discuss “Arizona’s comeback.”

“He was somewhat thin-skinned and a little tense to say the least,” Brewer told Phoenix radio station KFYI on Thursday. “I went there with good intentions .?.?. talking about Arizona and how I could give some assistance to him.”

White House press secretary Jay Carney scoffed at the notion that a deeper meaning was to be gleaned from the brief exchange, calling it “political theater.” And Obama told ABC News anchor Diane Sawyer in an interview that it was a “classic example of things getting blown out of proportion.”

Denying that he was “tense” during the encounter, as Brewer described, Obama said, laughing, that he is “usually accused of not being intense enough.”

“I think it’s always good publicity for a Republican if they’re in an argument with me. But this was really not a big deal,” he said.

According to Carney, the president told Brewer that her description in the book of a meeting they had in 2010 in the Oval Office “was not accurate.”

At the time, Brewer had told reporters that her meeting with Obama was “cordial,” but in the book she described him as “patronizing” and said he lectured her.

Over the past year, as his relations with congressional Republicans have soured, Obama has tried to cast the GOP as rigid ideologues whose allegiance to tea party conservatives has nearly caused financial catastrophe — first when House Speaker John A. Boehner (Ohio) “walked away” from Obama’s “grand bargain” offer during summer debt ceiling negotiations and again when Republicans grudgingly adopted the president’s proposed extension of a payroll tax cut at the 11th hour.

But Republicans have painted a different picture. During the debt-ceiling fight, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (Va.) told reporters that the president snapped at him in a negotiating session, saying “Don’t call my bluff” and abruptly walking out.

Republicans have more recently cast Obama’s “We can’t wait” campaign of taking executive action without congressional approval as evidence that he has chosen to ignore lawmakers. They characterized his appointment of Richard Cordray to head a financial consumer watchdog agency, even though the Senate rejected the nomination, as the act of an imperial president intent on imposing his will.

At the same time, White House officials have pushed back hard against two recent books — one about Obama’s economic advisers and the other about the president and first lady Michelle Obama’s relationship — that portray an insular administration.

On Thursday, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), Obama’s 2008 presidential rival, suggested that Obama’s reaction to Brewer revealed a well-known “prickly personality.”

McCain mentioned an account by Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) of a meeting with Obama when the president visited his state after the Gulf of Mexico oil spill in 2010. According to Jindal, Obama accosted him on a tarmac about a letter Jindal had sent the administration asking for food stamps for those who had lost jobs.

“President Obama had personalized this. And he was upset,” Jindal wrote. “There was not a word about the oil spill. He was concerned about looking bad because of the letter.”

Richard Wolffe, a political analyst and author, said Obama probably had grounds to object to what Brewer wrote. He added, however, that presidents tend to grow more short-tempered with criticism over time because they are “in a bubble .?.?. surrounded by people who agree with them.”

Weiner reported from Washington.

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