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Power dinner: Obama cabinet heads to Blair House for policy retreat

No word on whether they will have to turn off their Blackberries or who gets to pick the movie, when President Barack Obama‘s full cabinet plus senior White House officials head to Blair House for a reception and dinner kicking off this weekend’s policy retreat. The cabinet secretaries are not expected to have a slumber ...

No word on whether they will have to turn off their Blackberries or who gets to pick the movie, when President Barack Obama's full cabinet plus senior White House officials head to Blair House for a reception and dinner kicking off this weekend's policy retreat. The cabinet secretaries are not expected to have a slumber party, one administration official said, but are due back at Blair House tomorrow for "a Saturday component."

No word on whether they will have to turn off their Blackberries or who gets to pick the movie, when President Barack Obama‘s full cabinet plus senior White House officials head to Blair House for a reception and dinner kicking off this weekend’s policy retreat. The cabinet secretaries are not expected to have a slumber party, one administration official said, but are due back at Blair House tomorrow for "a Saturday component."

It will be only the third time Obama’s full cabinet has come together officially, a White House official said. "The President has convened two official Cabinet meetings, but groups of Cabinet members have met on common issues on numerous occasions."

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters yesterday that the retreat is something that "has long been on the docket" and has been a tradition going back to President Dwight Eisenhower.

"It’s an opportunity for the President, the Vice President, senior White House staff, and Cabinet officials all to get together and talk about the agendas both past and forward," Gibbs said. "How we can continue to work together to make progress.  But it’s not a mid-course correction or a report card. It’s just an opportunity for everyone to get together on hopefully a little bit less hectic pace.  Rather than seeing each other at a meeting for 15 or 30 minutes, it’s an opportunity I think tomorrow to have dinner and then have a little longer discussion on Saturday over at Blair House."

Gibbs said he may be moved to provide a readout of the gathering but expects it to be "somewhat mundane." The roads around Blair House will be closed during the power powwow. No word on whether one cabinet official is, as is customary during the State of the Union address, staying off site.

Laura Rozen writes The Cable daily at ForeignPolicy.com.

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