White House Correspondents Insider

Behind the scenes of one of the most powerful clubs in America.

Office of Gordon & Sarah Brown Launch "Education for All" Initiative

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As part of their “Education for All” campaign, the Office of Gordon & Sarah Brown announced a new initiative to get the 67 million children in the world without any formal schooling into education.  (We previously reported on the Brown’s efforts when Sarah spoke at the Women in the World Summit.) Their effort will focus on the one million children in South Sudan who are not in school – a larger proportion of children out of school than almost any other country in the world.

“Education for All” will call on the World Bank’s Global Partnership for Education (GPE) who meet next week and will have the opportunity to approve the education plan for the newest country in the world.  The campaign launch includes “The Sudan Report:  Investing In A Better Future” and an Avaaz campaign to “Send 1 Million Kids to School.”

WOLFENSOHN: Gordon Brown Great IMF Chief

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James Wolfensohn, former World Bank President, tells WHC Insider that he supports Gordon Brown to be the next International Monetary Fund Chief: “Brown is a strong financial leader and I think he would be an admirable candidate.”

Eyebrows were raised in Washington as current British Prime Minister David Cameron used aggressive political tactics in the selection process for the next IMF Chief.  Cameron broke tradition and attacked his predecessor, Brown, who is a possible candidate for the position.  The New Statesman weighed in, calling Cameron “petty.”

Wolfensohn has read Cameron’s comments and told WHC Insider, “Having worked with him [Brown] for a decade, he was the most effective International Finance Minister that I worked with. He has a great understanding of the developed countries and a strong sense of the developing countries.”

Brown recently spoke at Bretton Woods and here is Steve Clemons’ take.

As WHC Insider followers know, Tammy Haddad is a friend of Gordon and Sarah Brown, the Global Patron of the White Ribbon Alliance for Safe Motherhood.

Jon Stewart's New Friend: Gordon Brown

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It’s a British invasion of a different sort: Gordon Brown, the Former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, has taken America by storm while on book tour for “Beyond the Crash: Overcoming the First Crisis of Globalization.” Monday night, Brown exchanged bon mots with Jon Stewart on The Daily Show, even sticking around for an extended interview that can be seen exclusively online.

“But in Globalization, you know, we would very much like to sell them our products, and we have quite a few of them,” stated Stewart. “But, the demand in the rest of the world. Globalization – isn’t this the problem that Western countries face in a post-Imperial world? Life was so much easier when we had colonies. We could go in and just suck out every last bit and exploit.”

“Look, Jon, it was easier for us when you were the colony,” joked Brown. “We should never have let you go.”

Then Brown faced the crew over at MSNBC’s Morning Joe on Tuesday morning. Joe Scarborough wrapped up the interview by saying, “This is so important, because, coming from him – not because he’s a former Prime Minister – but Chancellor of the Exchequer for a very long time. This is a book Americans need to read.”

But it all started here in Washington, DC on Saturday night at The Jefferson Hotel with Connie Milstein. See Washington’s famous faces and hear Brown’s remarks on WHC Insider.

Gordon Brown’s D.C. Book Bash

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Gordon Brown, Former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, and wife Sarah, were in Washington this weekend to launch his U.S. book tour. The Browns were greeted by top politicos, global financial leaders and media types at a stately affair held at the Jefferson Hotel. The party was co-hosted by long-time friends Connie Milstein, owner of the Jefferson Hotel and her husband, J.C. de La Haye St. Hilaire, and Tammy Haddad.

Brown charmed the A-plus crowd, including the Obama Administration’s David and Susan Axelrod, Austan and Robin Goolsbee, Ambassador Elizabeth Bagley, Bill Burton and Laura Burton Capps, Stephanie Cutter, Bruce Reed, Eric Lesser and Katie McCormick Lelyveld, as he had a little fun describing his post PM life as well as giving his assessment of the global economy.

Here are Brown’s comments as reported by Politics Daily on AOL —

“In brief remarks, Brown — among the first world leaders to rescue troubled banks at home in 2008 — warned that “for the time in 200 years, America and Europe are being out-produced, out-invested, out-traded and out-exported” by other nations, and that the solution to the global crisis was to tap into a billion middle class consumers in Asia who in 10 years will have twice the buying power as Americans.”

Brown repeated that same message on ABC News “This Week with Christiane Amanpour” saying that while Asia and China had to consume more, “Europe’s got to reform its markets. America is prepared to invest in the future, while doing its fiscal consolidation. And that would mean, in my view, that you would have this exit strategy from a crisis based on high growth and high employment and not low growth and what I fear is high unemployment for a decade.”

The former prime minister — who earlier in his career spent a decade as finance minister — warned that the immediate danger “is that people cut back in education, which is vital for the future, that people cut back on their international contacts, because they think the solutions lie in national answers to their problems, when they lie in global cooperation. And I think the danger is, you have a ’30s-style protectionism where people relapse into currency wars, as we’re seeing, or trade wars or banning takeovers that have got cross-border ramifications, or simply a protectionism in of the mind, where anti-immigrant sentiment gets to the point that we’re not really talking to each other in a way that means that we have a coordinated world.”

A crowd formed around media celebrities including new CNN host Piers Morgan and his wife Celia Walden, Arianna Huffington and Glee’s Matthew Morrison.

Notables in the crowd: Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Managing Director of World Bank; Ambassador Capricia Marshall; Alan Greenspan and Andrea Mitchell; Terry McAuliffe; Rima al Sabah, Bob Barnett and Rita Braver; Bruce and Bonnie Reed; Robert and Ellen Bennett; Hilary Rosen and Kate Harold; Sam and Danielle Feist; Dan and Rhoda Glickman; Shelby Coffey; Anita McBride; Sally Quinn; NBC’s Savannah Guthrie, and the BBC’s Rome and Amy Hartman.

“Beyond the Crash” is published by Free Press/Simon & Schuster.

Gordon Brown US Book Premiere

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Watch the Gordon Brown US Book Premiere Party hosted at historic Jefferson Hotel

Gordon Brown, the former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, is celebrating the publication of his new book, “Beyond the Crash: Overcoming the First Crisis of Globalization” at an exclusive party this evening in D.C., with remarks expected by Gordon Brown, as well as co-hosts Tammy Haddad and Connie Milstein & J.C. de La Haye St. Hilaire.

WHC Insiders can watch the event starting at 5:30pm and see Gordon Brown’s remarks here on WHC Insider at approximately 6:00pm.

Update: If you missed the LIVE feed check out the video below: