First Obama State Dinner: Lucky 400 at Tuesday Bash

The highly choreographed Tuesday morning arrival ceremony for Prime Minister Singh and Mrs. Kaur, who landed in Washington on Sunday, is a show in itself. On Friday, dozens of military and White House staffers took part in a rehearsal on a flag-decked South Lawn. After the president and first lady greet their visitors, the prime minister and Obama will hold a joint press conference in the East Room.

The prime minister will also lunch at the State Department, at an event hosted by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton; the lunch is another hot invite.

No matter what news is made about one of America's most important bilateral relationships, there will be room left to write reams about the dinner. Foodies will find stories in the entrees. Wine lovers will mull the Obamas' choices. The guest list, to be released on Tuesday, will be read more avidly than a steamy novel and analyzed endlessly. And, of course, much attention will be paid to what Mrs. Obama wears.

When Singh was honored at the White House with a dinner in 2005, with President Bush and First Lady Laura Bush hosting, the menu included chilled asparagus soup, Chappellet Chardonnay Napa Valley 2003, pan-roasted halibut, ginger-carrot butter, basmati rice with pistachios and currants, herbed summer vegetables, trio of celery hearts, leaves and roots, bibb lettuce salad, and, for desert, mango, chocolate-cardamom and cashew ice creams.

While the Obamas have hosted crowds at the White House -- thousands for the Easter Egg Roll, a black-tie dinner for the nation's governors -- nothing is as scrutinized as closely as a state or official dinner.

I'm told by a West Winger that all top-level Obama staffers have been invited, as well as the congressional leadership, a selection of other members of the House and Senate and Cabinet, prominent Indian-Americans from across the country, including Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, and Indian-American members of the business community. There will even be a few journalists, including CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta. A contingent of Obama pals from Chicago is also expected. White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel's brother, Ari, the Hollywood super agent, got an invite; another brother, Ezekiel, a White House health policy adviser, did not.

When it comes to who is invited, former White House Chef Walter Scheib, in his book "White House Chef" (written with Andrew Friedman), has an anecdote about how Clinton Social Secretary Ann Stock viewed list-making: She made a grid chart with names of "who had to be invited, who should be invited, and who wanted to be invited."

In the Obama White House, names were suggested by the president and first lady, the State Department, the National Security Council and the political and legislative affairs and liaison shops.

Throwing the party in a tent freed the Obama team from the constraints of an inside-the-White House dinner party, where there would be room for only about 140. The Indian delegation, top U.S. officials and spouses would have accounted for about half that number.<

Scheib writes that in 1961, President Kennedy invited 138 for a state dinner at Mount Vernon in Virginia to honor Pakistan President Ayub Khan. The Clintons, on June 13, 1994, had only 180 over for Japanese Emperor Akhito.

It was during the Clinton era, Scheib writes, that state and official dinners got bigger. By the time Clinton left office, there was a state dinner for 700 in a tent for another Indian prime minister, Atal Vajpayee, and an official dinner for 900.

Now don't be put off by this being in a tent. This is not summer camp. "This literally is a home," said Neel Lattimore, a press secretary for Secretary of State Clinton when she was first lady. "This will be as glamorous as anything inside the White House will be. This will be the most magnificent tent that you have ever been in your entire life."

The tent will have a floor, heat and perhaps even the chandelier the Clintons used for their dinners on the South Lawn. There will also be smaller tents for a satellite kitchen.

Let me digress: Up until now, a state dinner was the term used when the guest was a head of state. An official dinner was the term used for a national leader who was not the official head of state. The British prime minister, for example, is not the head of state -- the queen is. As I noted in an October Politics Daily column, Singh is not India's head of state. That title -- largely symbolic -- belongs to the president of India, Pratibha Devisingh Patil. When President Bush threw that dinner for Singh in 2005, the White House was careful not to call the event a state dinner. It had the appearance of one but was billed as an "official dinner."

Anyway, the Obama White House says this is a state dinner.

Obama's first state dinner comes 10 months into his term. How does this compare to other presidents? Kennedy, inaugurated Jan. 20, 1961, entertained the president of Tunisia in May 1961. Clinton, inaugurated in 1993, waited until June 1994. Bush, inaugurated in January 2001, held his first state dinner for Mexican President Vincente Fox on Sept. 5, 2001 -- days before the 9/11 attacks curtailed festivities at the White House.