Last night may’ve been the Night of Many Book Parties in Washington. While entertaining a “audience of 500+” at Politico Cocktails, Morning Joe co-hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski got a surprise visit from New Jersey Governor Chris Christie.
“Is that Chris,” Scarborough asked in the middle of a self-proclaimed great story. “You son of a…” but Mika cut him off and let the good governor speak. Per Playbook: “Mika puts Christie on speakerphone to discuss his surgery, and their blunt conversations for her new book about body image, “Obsessed: America’s Food Addition – And My Own.” The audience of 500+ repeatedly applauds the chatty, jovial Christie, including when he tells why he kept the surgery a secret.”
Allen claims the event drew a larger crowd than even March’s Cocktails with Bill Gates. Which makes sense when you think about Washington having an on/off affair with people’s two favorite addictions on Capitol Hill: Starbucks and Microsoft.
We’re lucky that Nicco Mele< / tried to warn us about this back in 2004. His new book, “The End of Big” has an important sub-title: “How the Internet Makes David the New Goliath.”
Whether it’s a personalizing comments or reshaping media Nicco’s book is the starting point for our new landscape. Nicco already is an accomplished entrepreneur, angel investor and tired of answering everyone’s question about “what is a Bitcoin anyway?”
All that aside, Nicco’s an important voice in this changing world of media and interactivity. It started at Howard Dean’s meetups and continued through today as he’s on faculty at the Harvard Kennedy School teaching graduate students how the Internet, politics and even bitcoins factor into running our country. And if that’s not enough, you can always go to his site for a less-serious photo.
You can watch remarks starting live at 7 p.m. est below:
Capricia Marshall is out of the newly-minted John Kerry State Department sometime at the end of the summer. Speaking to the Reliable Source on Monday, the soon-to-be-former-Chief-of-Protocol issued a non-offcial announcement and reminded readers that she’s a long-time member of Hillary Clinton‘s team. She’s spent the last 20 years working for the former Secretary of State, and may join her depending on decisions for the 2016 race with this kicker to the Source: “If she decides to run, I’ll be behind her 100 percent.”
Politico asks the question no one ever wondered: “What Chris Christie’s surgery means for 2016(?)”
It’s a story that hasn’t seemed to change anything about the New Jersey governor’s political legacy, despite constantly being brought up. Literally, Politico ran the fact that most New Jersey voters don’t care about his weight back in March. It goes to other sites too: HuffPost has been tracking “Chris Christie Weight” since 2011. Throw “Christie Weight” into Google, immediately get 22 million results from the last few hours.
So just why is the good governor’s health so concerning to us? Because it’s yet another dark horse for the 2016 presidential race. Going into the hows and whys of Christie deciding to privately have a surgery when his weight has been such a–sorry–massive issue to even be mocked on Letterman.
Maybe a surgery can just be a surgery and not turn itself into a monsoon in 2016.
Barbra Streisand huddled with Bradley Cooper, Graydon Carter with Julia-Louis Dreyfus and Jeff Zucker with Eric Kuhn, the stars were shining brightly at the French Ambassador’s residence after the White House Correspondents Dinner.
The room seemed to stop when CAA’s Michael Kives walked in with Katy Perry on his arm. Gerard Butler who stirred up the crowd at the Garden Brunch for his easy charm was with guest Piers Morgan and a tall dark haired beauty. The cast of “Nashville”–Connie Britton, Hayden Panitierre and Chip Esten–seemed to entertain Hilary Rosen while “Glee’s” Darren Kriss hit the piano leading a sing along.
Homeland’s Morena Baccarrin and her husband Austin Chick were the center of another swirl while co-star Claire Danes held another crowd.
Guests both past and present from the Obama administration included Dan Pfeiffer, Stephanie Cutter, Evan Ryan and Tony Blinken, Jon Favreau, Tommy Vietor, Reggie Love and Gene Sperling.
