All Blog Posts from Couric & Co.

The president hosted his first lunch for newspeople (more accurately newsmen and one newswoman) in the private dining room of the residence. It is always a thrill to be part of this lunch. I was first invited in 2006 with President Bush. It’s an opportunity for some frank conversation in a relaxed, informal setting. Of course sports was the initial topic (guys) but I was able to direct the chit chat more towards the Oscars and movies. President Obama said he had watched "Slumdog Millionaire" at the White House and loved it … in many ways, he said it reminded him of growing up in Jakarta, where he lived between the ages of 6 and 10. He also really liked "Gran Torino," and the table pretty much agreed that Clint Eastwood was enormously talented in acting, as well as directing and composing. He missed the Oscars because the governors were at the White House for a formal dinner. That was about it in terms of small talk. The discussion soon moved to something much bigger: the economy.

The conversation was on background with a number of White House officials, so I'll spend the next few minutes characterizing what they had to say. I think it’s safe to say we’ll hear from Dr. Obama tonight. He’ll level with the American people and explain that the patient is sick, here’s the diagnosis and that the prognosis is good. I got the impression he’s going to try to explain these complicated issues in layman’s terms without sounding too professorial or as if he’s lecturing at an Introduction to Macroeconomics class.

But he will try to connect the dots and explain why the credit crisis is impacting people on a personal level, whether it’s plant layoffs, college loans or home foreclosures. When asked about nationalizing the banks ...

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Mark Knoller is a White House correspondent for CBS News.

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Press Secretary Dana Perino said President Bush was in the Oval Office at 6:55 a.m. this morning.

He made some phone calls, talked to National Security Advisor Steve Hadley, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and took a call from his former Chief of Staff Andrew Card.

Mr. Bush then talk a last walk around the South Lawn, and is now spending his last moments in the White House with his family until the Obamas arrive just before 10 a.m.

Perino herself was in the press room giving out her last supply of M&M's with the presidential seal and Mr. Bush's signature on them.

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Click Here For All Of CBSNews.com's Special Inauguration Coverage

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Mark Knoller is a White House Correspondent for CBS News, temporarily reporting from the CBS News Pet Desk at the White House.

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You had to feel sorry for India the Cat as the least-known member of the First Family. She never got quite the same level of public attention or affection as the Bush Family dogs Barney and Miss Beazley.

Quietly this morning, the First Lady’s press office let it be known that India, a black American Shorthair, died yesterday in the White House at the age of 18.

The story goes that India got her name from one of the Bush’s twin daughters, Barbara. When she was nine, she named the cat for former Texas Ranger baseball player Ruben Sierra – who was called “El Indio.”

The Bush Family also took to calling the cat “Willie” or just plain “Kitty.”

One of India's favorite pastimes, according to First Lady Laura Bush, was to sun herself on a chair near the Palladian window at ...

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Everyone was all smiles when 43 welcomed 44 to the White House today. President and Mrs. Bush gave Barack and Michelle Obama a walk through their new home. It had to be a bit awkward, though. If you listened to any Obama campaign speech, Mr. Bush's name was practically a four letter word.

Still, he wasn't defeated by Mr. Obama. President Bush's father had to show around the newly elected Bill Clinton after being fired by voters.

We're not being told exactly what went on in the oval office today. Historically, some first meetings have gone better than others. Dwight Eisenhower is said to have been impressed by JFK, but FDR wanted nothing to do with the outgoing Herbert Hoover.

These men are seasoned politicians who can put their differences aside. Each promises a smooth transition over the next 10 weeks. With two wars and the worst economic crisis since the depression, we deserve nothing less.

Mark Knoller is a White House Correspondent for CBS News.

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Memo to the next tenants at the White House: The current tenants have gotten rid of the jogging track.

The quarter-mile loop around the South Lawn has been paved over. It is now an indistinguishable part of the asphalt driveway on which presidential motorcades begin and end.

The White House decided that the four-foot wide rubberized path had deteriorated over the years – and wasn’t worth the cost of replacing it.

It was first installed in 1993 at the behest of the new President Bill Clinton. His morning jogging forays in Washington routinely caused traffic problems and subjected him to shouted questions ...

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Mark Knoller is a White House Correspondent for CBS News.

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To hear the White House tell it, one factor in the House vote yesterday against the administration’s bailout plan – was the word "bailout."

"It’s really unfortunate shorthand for a very complicated issue." says White House deputy press secretary Tony Fratto.

He says the administration plan to rescue the financial markets is "not a bailout for Wall Street" and "certainly not a bailout for Wall Street CEOs."

Okay then – what should we call it?

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Mark Knoller is a White House Correspondent for CBS News.

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Think the White House and its defenders are up in arms now about Scott McClellan?

Just imagine the uproar if he’s called to give sworn testimony to Congress about what he knows and heard during his White House years.

A democratic member of the House Judiciary Committee is already calling for McClellan to be summoned to testify under oath about such matters as the firings of those nine U.S. attorneys a couple years ago and the leaking of Valerie Plame’s identity as a CIA operative.

But the White House says it could move to stop McClellan from testifying about private presidential deliberations.

“Hypothetically? Yes, I think so,” said White House press secretary Dana Perino at today’s press briefing. “The law would allow for that.”

But she was quick to explain that the White House would not definitely take that action. But it is an option.

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Peter Maer is a White House correspondent for CBS News.

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It was a first in my more than 22 years on the White House beat: coverage of a presidential latrine inspection.

It happened yesterday at Fort Bragg, N.C., where President Bush checked out military "facilities" at the home of the famed 82nd Airborne Division. The unusual visit was provoked after an Army paratrooper's dad shot a video that revealed shoddy conditions at a Fort Bragg barracks. The images posted on You Tube showed peeling paint, mold and sewage on a bathroom floor.

An Army statement said all repairs were completed within 72 hours of the posting of the April 24 video. But once on the Web, the disgusting images triggered a broad inspection of conditions at Army barracks. A Fort Bragg spokesman called the incident "embarrassing and shocking." He admitted it was "awful and never should have happened." The White House obviously couldn't agree more. The army made sure the latrine was squeaky clean when the president arrived for what obviously was NOT a surprise inspection as he visited the base to salute troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. Pool reporter Steven Lee Myers of the New York Times described a restroom that was "as shiny as a new dime" when the commander-in-chief stepped on to the tile floor. Referring to the Army's plan to renovate and replace old barracks, Mr. Bush said, "these old buildings are coming down."

The administration clearly wants to avoid a repeat of the outrage that followed last year's revelations of dilapidated buildings at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington. The Fort Bragg and Walter Reed stories are vivid contradictions of President Bush's frequent promises that the government will do everything possible for the nation's veterans and active duty forces.

CBS News White House correspondents Peter Maer (top left) and Mark Knoller (bottom left) interviewed President Bush in the Roosevelt Room at the White House.

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We had to wait nearly an hour for President Bush to enter the Roosevelt Room for our radio interview.

But actually, we’d been waiting more than seven years.

My colleague Peter Maer and I have been pitching the White House to grant us an interview with the president since the year he took office.

Most recently, we were told that Mr. Bush doesn’t like doing radio interviews. He doesn’t think his comments get a fair shake when we only use “snippets” of what he says in our radio reports and on the hourly radio newscasts.

Well, that’s the nature of the business. But through the magic of this podcast, you can hear everything thing he said, in the context in which he said it.

We were given 15 minutes, and tried to wring every nanosecond out of it.

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Click here to listen to the entire interview with President Bush.

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Greg Kandra is a writer for the CBS Evening News. He's also a Roman Catholic deacon for the Diocese of Brooklyn, N.Y.

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Watching Pope Benedict step out of his limousine this morning and wave to the thousands cheering on the White House South Lawn, one thought crossed my mind: What would my grandparents think?

They were immigrants from Austria-Hungary (later known as Czechoslovakia) who settled in the hills of northeastern Pennsylvania, where my grandfather spent most of his life deep under the earth, mining coal. Their English was spotty, and their education slim. I don’t think my grandfather ever graduated high school. Together they raised five children in a rickety wooden row house not far from the coal mines. All the Hungarians and Poles and Slovaks clustered in one corner of the town. I don’t know that I’d call it a Catholic ghetto – but it was definitely off the beaten path.

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