Tuesday, 9:07am

While Megan makes her way into the city (she’s got tickets for actual seats), Choire is already outside in the cold with dispatches from last night’s Huffington Post party and this morning’s Washington Mall insanity:

Weirdest moment of last night’s Huffington Post ball at the Newseum: New York Times politics reporter Jeff Zeleny back to back with the guy from that new romcom with crazy Katherine Heigl. Neither had any idea who the other is. He’s hot, even if he is the poor man’s Clive Owen. Right by them was former MSNBC head turned publicist Dan Abrams. Blecho. Robert DeNiro and his lovely partner Grace Higjtower were in good spirits; Martha Stewart, who is always at these DC parties, and always dressed in the same 70s-era nature tones (running the gamut from peach to beige to ecru) was down by the door by midnight, undoubtedly waiting for her poor driver. This was a confusing party. The guest list was literally as thick as a phone book. This party existed, I think, to convey Arianna’s social dominance but i’m not sure that message got across: not exclusive enough, and, relatedly, too crowded. The coat check alone was the size of a NYC block. Arianna made a couple of unintelligible speeches. If she was smart, she was appearing via satellite from home! Getting home from the Newseum, which is on Pennsylvania Ave and fifty feet from the Mall, was a horrorshow: fences and barricades and cops and, well, wow. DC is very nanny-state. The automated voices on the Metro are like something out of Robocop, repeating endlessly as people get trapped in the doors. The trashcans in the museums actually say “thank you” when you put trash in them, which is gross. But nothing can disrupt the glee today! Not crowds, not cold, not annoying social control measures. Today is awesome!

—10 minutes later—

Okay I have NO IDEA where I am but there are a LOT of people here. Some white ones too, as they did not stay home. But what is genius is that there are volunteer greeters everywhere who are like, HI, GOOD MORNING, WHHHOOOOO! Which reminds you that this is a party and you are supposed to be happy and nice to everyone. It’s yet another brilliantanifestatiom of the Obama organizational machine. OMG MY HANDS ARE COLD.