Who is Visiting the White House?

Ever wonder who gets to see the inside of the Oval Office? Now you can, thanks to a White House data release of recent visitors. For example, Paul Krugman, the noted economist, has only visited once—but for more than 5 hours. In the middle of a financial crisis, it is not surprising that economists get a big slice of the President’s time. Explore the parts of this data that interest you by clicking on either a person or room for more detail.

As I explored this data for the first time I enjoyed snooping on the people that I recognized, but I realized that I had no idea who Cass Sunstein, John Podesta or Richard Trumka were. You caught me, I am no student of political science, but in this age of open information and visualization why should that be a burden? Using Tableau's hyperlink feature and the always fascinating Wikipedia, I clicked on Trumka's name and realized he is the leader of the largest labor organization in the US, the AFL-CIO and had marathon 5.5 hour visit to the West Wing.

Use this view into the White House to see who is on the President's agenda and the rooms they get to see.