Friday, January 25, 2008

Gave lecture Global health at USA Families Conference at the Mayflower Hotel. The speaker before me was my friend former Senator Tom Daschle. Tom gave a great talk on health care in the USA based on a book that he has just written. Of note, he is the health advisor for Barack Obama. This is good since Tom likes me a lot and this could be my entry into getting to know Obama a bit better since I know Hillary much better than I do Obama. This evening went with Chris to an elegant “private” dinner (black tie) at the Academy of Achievement Town House at 1222 16th Street, N.W. given by Catherine and Wayne Reynolds. They have been very generous to me in inviting me to these great affairs. In typical Catherine Reynolds style, the details of the evening were amazing. Great food and elegant wines (Montrachet and Margaux) and champagne (Dom Perignon). Guests were terrific. Sens. Daschle, Cochrane, Byron Dornan; Bob Barnett,; Congressman Dingle; Mack McCarty; John Negroponte; Mike Chertoff Steve and Alice Rosenberg, etc. Highlight of the evening was the command private performance by Bernadette Peters, who was amazing – talented and beautiful at 60 years old (next month)! I was struck by how short she is in real life. Google lists her as 5’3”, but she was about 1.5 inches shorter then I and she had spiked (3 inch) heels on – great looking woman and incredibly nice as we spoke with her after the performance.