As others (ahem, HuffPo) get to work on winning the morning, we’re taking a trip down memory lane and looking at what’s next.

Everyone is talking about Politico today (in your face Donald Trump!). So, we wanted to share our thoughts (and high fives, it’s what we do) ….

We love POLITICO. We remember the first few days – the launch party with an actual paper box as the centerpiece. Ryan Grim, and Patrick O’Connor lounging around the House Press Gallery scooping the shit out of everyone. The first time President George W. Bush called on Mike Allen at The White House. When POLITICO got a Drudge Report bomb on day one. When Josie Hearn first introduced us to the pride of Orangeburg, Tennessee – the Famous Jaime Harrison.

When Helena Andrews joining made big news. Before Ben Smith created Buzzfeed.

When the other publications in town started scrambling to put their reporters on television. We remember Chris Frates turning Politico Influence into a daily must-read all down K Street. We remember Jack Smith signing all his emails with the early Politico tagline: “Takes One to Know One.”

Wait, does Jack still do that?

When Patrick Gavin was tracking everything from FishbowlDC as POLITICO was disrupting the DC media market. When Anne Schroeder Mullins was still Anne Schroder and was everywhere. Before Jonathan Martin was hired by the New York Times to travel around the country attending football games and eating food. When Roger Simon took health care reporting to a WHOLE new level. Before Carrie Sheffield took her talents to Houston.

Remember when Politico mapped the blogosphere?

Ahh, the good ole days….

Now. What’s next?

Mike Allen, Jim Vandehei, Kim Kingsley, Roy Schwartz, and Danielle Jones are going to crush whatever they tackle next. Can you recreate the magic somewhere else? How many Super Bowl teams win back-to-back?

Let’s think about who Politico still has and what they’re doing. Wonderkid Dan Lippman now gets the reigns of Playbook (and he appears to have the city wired). Politico Influence is in strong hands with Isaac Arnsdorf. Ben White is up in New York crushing the Morning Money. On the business side Peter Cherukuri is still doing big things and has a deep bench with Jon Otto (the pride of Pope John XXIII High School), Jack Smith, Tomer Ovadia, Brad Bosserman, Meaghan Gilmorem, Alexandra Lemley, and Meredith McPhillips, just to name a few. Bennett Richardson in taking over Brussels. They’re building out a data business and the in-house agency, Focus. Revenue is up and growing.

Politico Pro looks to still be on fire. Their sales teams are still calling PR and lobbying firms on a daily basis for a free trial (we understand and respect the hustle). Not to mention the VERY regular white board and breaking news alerts for all those who subscribe. They’re on it.

Anna Palmer, Lauren French, Jake Sherman, John Bresnahan, Brianna Ehley, Katie Glueck, Hadas Gold, Darren Goode, Alex Guillen, Joanne Kenen, Seung Min Kim, Erin Mershon, Brett Norman, David Pittman, Jon Prior, David Rogers, Matt Daily, Kyle Cheney, Rachel Bade, Arthur Allen, Darren Samuelsohn, Darius Tahir, Sarah Wheaton, Glenn Thursh, Patrick Temple-West, Austin Wright, Eric Wolff, Brianna Ehley, Paul Demko, Dan Diamond, Burgess Everett, Rebecca Heslin Haller, Brad Dayspring, we could go on… but that’s a SOLID stable if we’ve ever seen one.

And we’re confident others smell blood in the water. We hear HuffPost Hill is considering moving their newsletter to the morning to take over the void Mike Allen is leaving open. LinkedIn profiles are being updated as we type this. And other publications are asking around about the “all-stars we can poach from Politico.”

At FamousDC we’re political and media nerds. We love this shit and can’t wait to see what everyone does next. Let us know if we can help with anything. We mean that.

/// high five.

Did we miss anything? Hit up our tip box, [email protected]

One last throwback: Remember when we called it “THE Politico.”