From George Will to Rachel Maddow: Obama Meets the Media

Posted by Rachel Weiner, Huffington Post at 2:28 PM on January 14, 2009.

Tuesday night, President-elect Barack Obama sat down with some prominent conservative authors for dinner. Wednesday, Politico's Michael Calderone reports, he's paying a visit to the liberal side of the commentariat:

The group included the Washington Post's E.J. Dionne and Eugene Robinson, the Wall Street Journal's Gerry Seib, National Journal's Ron Brownstein, the New York Times Frank Rich and Maureen Dowd, and MSNBC's Rachel Maddow, among others.

Today's meeting was held at the transition headquarters, and unlike dinner at George Will's house, I'm told there weren't refreshments. But similar to last night's, the discussion was off the record.

Meanwhile, Johnathan Chait points out that even before the new meeting was announced, liberals weren't upset:

They know that Obama understands far more about policy than any of his right-wing dinner companions, is used to being exposed to opposing ideas, and won't come out of that dinner telling his staff, "Hey, did you know we cut half the capital gains tax and raise more revenue?"

Tagged as: obama, frank rich, rachel maddow, maureen dowd, e.j. dionne, eugene robinson, gerry seib, ron brownstein