The White House press corps has a new president.

Reuters White House Correspondent Caren Bohan won the election for president of the White House Correspondents’ Association and will take the mantle in the 2011-2012 term.

Until then, she will serve as the wire-service representative on the WHCA board which represents the White House press corps on matters of access, traveling with the president, and other issues related to covering the White House.

The WHCA also organizes the annual dinner where the president gets a chance to publicly poke fun at the press before an audience of journalists, politicians and Hollywood stars.

Julie Mason of the Washington Examiner won the at-large seat, Holly Bailey of Newsweek won the magazine seat, and Don Gonyea of NPR won the radio seat.

Caren has covered the White House since 2003 and last year was one of the lead Reuters correspondents on the presidential campaign trail.

She has covered international summits, the federal budget, U.S. policy on Iraq and Afghanistan, and has reported extensively on the U.S. economy. Caren joined Reuters in 1992.

WASHINGTON - Ready for the first polls in the 2012 presidential race? 

Neither are we, but the folks at the Marist College Institute of Public Opinion couldn’t resist scaring us anyway. 

 They sent an e-mail on Thursday with the subject line: Marist Poll: Matchups for the 2012 Presidential Election — For Immediate Release. 

 Once opened, however, the message read: “Did you really open this e-mail? Haven’t you had enough? You’ll be hearing from us soon … but not this soon. 

 Best wishes, 

 Your friends at The Marist Poll.

Click here for more Reuters 2008 campaign coverage.

Photo credit: Reuters/Mitch Dumke. Supporters of U.S. President-elect Barack Obama celebrate in front of the White House in Washington, Nov. 5, 2008

LORETTO,  KENTUCKY  -   Sen.  Hillary Clinton, campaigning in rural Kentucky, on Saturday blasted critics telling her to drop out of the presidential race as America’s advantaged and well-heeled trying to tell the rest of the nation what to think and do.

“All those people on TV who are telling you and everybody else that this race is over and I should just be graceful and say, ‘Oh, it’s over,’” she said in Loretto, Kentucky. “Those are all people who have a job. Those are all people who have health care. Those are all people who can afford to send their kids to college. Those are all people who can pay whatever is charged at the gas pump.

“They’re not the people I’m running to be a champion for,” she said after touring a bourbon distillery. “I’m running to be a champion for all of you and your children and your grandchildren.”

Clinton, facing calls to quit in favor of Democratic frontrunner Barack Obama, has adopted a populist appeal in her bid for her party’s presidential nomination, especially as she has sought support in the rural Midwest and South.

As her campaign accused Obama of being an elitist, she drank a shot of whiskey before a crowd of photographers, posed with the driver of a large pickup truck to oppose high gas prices and campaigned at a farm equipment dealership and an auto race car hall of fame.

Recent primaries have shown Clinton faring better among voters with less education and less income in rural areas than Obama who is doing better among more affluent, more educated voters in more urban areas.

Later on Saturday, at Kentucky State University in Frankfort, Clinton continued in the same vein.

“I think we have a problem because too often, folks who are sitting in Washington or on TV sets tell people what you’re supposed to think and what you’re supposed to do,” she said, “and I don’t believe that’s the best way that America can work. The strength of America comes from our people.”

Click here for more Reuters 2008 campaign coverage.

Photo: Reuters/Chris Keane (Clinton supporter in West Virginia )

CARY, N.C. - A double standard that treats men and women differently still exists in the race for the White House, Hillary Clinton told an audience on Saturday.

The former first lady recalled Hollywood dancing stars Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers and the famous saying that Rogers did everything Astaire did but “backwards and in high heels.”

“I do think that there is still something of a double standard,” she said in North Carolina. “I think there is a certain element of that.”

“I’m not running for president because I’m a woman,” she added, “but I’m very conscious of the fact that my being a woman sends an incredible message of possibility, not only to our daughters but also to our sons. It says in our country, we have consistently expanded the circle of opportunity. We have broken through so many glass ceilings.”

Click here for more Reuters 2008 campaign coverage.

Photo credit: Reuters/Chris Keane