Why a Legendary Washington Insider Is Dreading the White House Correspondents’ Dinner-Politico
Re-Upping this Heading Into This Weekend
Correspondents’ Dinner weekend. A good moment to revisit my friend Juleanna Glover’s 2022 conversation with Politico’s Michael Schaffer — a consummate insider explaining, with characteristic candor, why the whole enterprise had started to feel off. Reposted here with her blessing.
Juleanna Glover stands at the nexus of social and political Washington. As one of the city’s best-known conveners, she’s been a fixture at events around the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner, which during her 33 years working in Washington has evolved from a dinner to a weeklong cavalcade of networking, influence and money-making leavened by the occasional toast to a free press.
But this year, with the annual festivities back to their familiar frenetic pace, amidst a degree of back-to-normal excitement beyond anything in years, Glover is experiencing a distinctly unfamiliar feeling: Dread.
It has nothing to do with the virus or the war in Ukraine or even the superficiality that critics of the dinner have long denounced. Over the last few months, Glover has actually thrown book parties, hosted events, and otherwise gathered with the Washington village. Instead, it’s about politics itself and the whole idea that official Washington can get together and pretend that nothing’s changed.
Continue reading at Politico →Michael Schaffer is a senior editor at POLITICO. His Capital City column runs weekly in POLITICO Magazine.
