Oprah Winfrey, George Clooney Visit White House

The White House has released a list of celebrities and influential people who have been invited to meet with the President and Michelle Obama, and indicated that George Clooney and Oprah Winfrey have both had a visit. The newly-released list is an attempt to follow through on the promise of greater transparency, and includes about 480 records of visits to the White House. Among those on the list of large donors to the president’s campaign, lobbyists and informal advisers.

Said Anthony Podesta, a lobbyist whose brother John headed Obama’s transition team, "The small number of meetings that I’ve been to at the White House – I go to the White House every other month on average – have been on issues that the White House cared about. I understand that you could interpret it otherwise." Among the issues that Podesta and president discussed was a move to reduce the country’s dependence on foreign oil, though he also met with Obama aides and his lobbying clients Cessna and NetJets about the decrease in small plane sales. Said Podesta, "We weren’t saying, ‘Please give us money’ or ‘Please set up a special program for us.’ We were just letting the administration know there was this difficult situation in the small-jet manufacturing market."

As for Clooney, his meeting with Obama and Vice President Joe Biden on February 23 was to discuss the crisis in the Darfur region. Clooney is a U.N. messenger of peace and asked Obama to appoint a full time regional envoy to the area who would report directly to the White House.