Jack Blanchard hosts the "Politico Playbook: The First 100 Days” event at Union Station on Tuesday. Photo by Rod Lamkey, Jr., for Politico. Politico announced Monday that Jack Blanchard will be the new managing editor and author of Playbook, the newsletter that much of official Washington wakes up to. Blanchard is an unusual hire in one sense—he is British and has never lived in the US—but he also started the London iteration of Playbook and is thus very familiar with political hurly-burly. We spoke (when else?) early Thursday morning. Washingtonian: Is this a terrifying assignment? It’s a really exciting assignment. I mean, yeah, of course it’s slightly daunting to take on something of the magnitude of Playbook, but it’s a dream for me for a very long time to do this. I majored in American history at university. I’ve always followed American politics very closely. And Playbook, for me, it’s a real passion project. I was hired by Politico in London in 2017 to imagine, set up, launch, and author a London version of Playbook. And that really was my baby in London for quite a few years, and we made a real success of that there. The DC version of Playbook was always the OG, the big mothership version. So when Politico started talking to me about the idea of coming over and getting involved with it, that was just professionally a dream for me. You’re not going to write for a UK audience that’s trying to understand this weird country, you’ll be writing for the people involved in US politics. How are you going to burrow in here? Absolutely right. This is an insider’s guide to Washington. There is a feeling at Politico that this might be a good time to bring in a fresh pair of eyes to look at American politics, this big moment of change. There’s a lot of people in Washington who look a little bit drained by American politics of the last ten years, perhaps understandably. It’s obviously been an exhausting thing to follow and write about and cover. For me personally, the great thing about running Playbook is it just opens doors immediately for you. Everybody wants to come and talk to you. So I think getting into the Washington world won’t be as difficult as it might have been. I should also say I have so many wonderful colleagues here already. There’s a team that already works on Playbook. My good friend Eugene Daniels is very much staying part of the project. We have a huge newsroom in Rosslyn, hundreds of brilliant journalists, all of whom want to help this new version of Playbook get off the ground. I would wager that your experience with the never-ending chaos of the last few years in Britain might be something of an advantage here. Yeah, it certainly hasn’t been a quiet time in Westminster the last ten years. I’ve literally lost count of how many prime ministers we’ve burned through. Many, many changes of government, cabinet changes. I’ve covered two referendums, which were seismic moments for the nation. So I’m used to chaos and turmoil and change. I do appreciate that what’s happening in America right now is potentially of a different magnitude to that. And professionally, that’s what makes this such an exciting assignment for me. I’m not coming to this with any partisan point of view. I’m coming as an outsider who just wants to learn and to write about it and to observe what’s happening. I’m a fan of London Playbook. Do you see any opportunities for cross-pollination between the two properties? For sure. The way that I approached London Playbook is something that we’re going to inject into the Washington version. And under my guidance, there’s a sort of particular character and a particular tone to London Playbook that people really enjoy. There’s a connection between the writer and the people that read it that I really want to bring to Washington. And more than that, there’s a very relentless focus on the day ahead. The idea of London Playbook is that if you work in Westminster, it’s the most useful thing that you get in the morning because it really tees you up and guides you through what’s about to happen in the political day. And I want my version of Washington Playbook to very much do that. Anything you love so far about DC? Hate? I have to say, I wasn’t expecting the river to be frozen over when I arrived. It’s certainly colder than I expected, but that’s good. I like four proper seasons. I do need to track down where I’m going to watch my—I should say, soccer team. It’s pretty important to me that I find the Liverpool bar over the next week or two so that I can keep my connection to home in that way. And I can also say that I watched the American ballgame on Sunday night in a bar locally and I can see that the Commanders have a 100 percent record while I’m in the country. Please watch Saturday! How will you manage your schedule? Are you the type of person who can be out late and then file brilliant copy in the early morning? That is absolutely the trick. This job does strange things to your body clock. When I launched London Playbook, I was doing it on my own. There was no team. There was just me five days a week just staying up all night and going around in the day trying to get people to sign up. I’m hoping that this time around it won’t be quite as demanding, because I have a wonderful team of journalists who will help. Also, I have two small children at home these days, so there’s a limit to what they’re gonna let me do. But yeah, I mean, you have to be at the parties. You have to be at the events. Then you’ve got to get home and then you’ve got to be in a good state of mind to write a really, really strong, useful newsletter for people as they wake up in the morning. Blanchard’s iteration of Playbook will make its debut on Monday. This interview has been condensed and lightly edited.  The post Playbook’s New Author Is “Used to Chaos and Turmoil and Change” first appeared on Washingtonian.