So last Monday I attended a dinner hosted by The American Spectator at the Capitol Hill Club in Washington, D.C.. There were approximately 30 attendees including the guest of honor, President Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner. Other luminaries were Jeff Lord, the former lone conservative piñata on CNN who now appears on Fox News, Byron York of the Washington Examiner, John Fund of National Review, nationally syndicated political analyst Michael Barone and Bob Tyrell, the founder and publisher of The American Spectator. With the exception of me, everybody else was either a government, business  or media big wig.

I kept looking around the room wondering what I was doing there. I’m a blogger who gets published occasionally by The American Spectator and the Philadelphia Inquirer. Given the massive accomplishments on the national stage of the other attendees, I felt like a Fresh Air Fund kid from the inner city who’s won a day at the Phillies training camp.

During dinner, the guests directed questions at Jared Kushner. For some reason, I was seated just to his left with only a single person between us. From that near vantage point, I was able to closely watch and carefully assess him as he spoke.

The evening was “off the record”, so I can’t tell you what he had to say. I can share, however, that he came across as being very smart, articulate, polite, down-to-earth, and sincere. I was really impressed.

After dinner, when Jared was leaving, I introduced myself to him and asked whether the President had a ghost writer to help with his Tweets. Since his answer was off the record, I can’t share it with you. But here’s a clue. It  starts with an “n” and ends with an “o”.

Overall, it was a great evening, and, as a retiree in need of all the free food and booze that I can scarf down, I hope to be invited back. Until then, I want to thank Publisher Bob Tyrell, Editor Melissa Mackenzie and all of my other friends at The American Spectator for a memorable experience.