I'm a lucky SOB. Last night, I had dinner with Howard Dean. Granted, there were about twenty other people having dinner with him too. However, I sat directly across the table from the guy (3-4ft. away) for a good half an hour. I think it was about as close to the feeling of being on heroin as I'll ever get.
How did this happen? I've been involved with the Miami University College Democrats (Oxford, Ohio) for a few years and was in charge of bringing in Robert F. Kennedy Jr. last year. Got to have dinner with him too, but that's another story. Anyway, the dems brought in Dean this year and included me on the list of dinner guests. Somehow (Okay, I planned it kind of shrewdly) he wound up sitting right across the table from me. Surreal is the best word to describe it.
Let me first just say that Dean is a cool guy. After watching him on TV, I had him pegged as sort of tightly wound, a bit angry, and not so personal. Don't get me wrong, I was a Dean man from start till just about finish and gave him as much money as I've given Kerry. But I never thought I'd enjoy having dinner with him.
I'll include stupid details as well as more substantive ones.... He got the stuffed pork loin and a salad. Downed everything and quickly too. I was waiting for him to lick his plate. I, on the other hand, picked nervously at my dinner and for once was not concerned about finishing.
I asked him four questions.. (Note: Dean's answers are paraphrased from memory. Few direct quotes are accurate. Meaning, for God's sake, don't use any of these quotes!)
1. Which political talk show host gave you the toughest interview.
Dean: A little defensively "I don't know, do you have a candidate" His mouth was full of pork when he said it. I thought it'd be too bold to say Russert so I said "Hannity". What followed was Dean calling Hannity every name for dumb in the book.
2. How did you get so many lower income people to max out in their contributions to your campaign.
Dean: Shook his head maybe feeling a bit guilty or stressed about the amount of money he took in from people who had so little (including myself but I'd give twice as much in a heartbeat). You get people to believe in themselves again. You get them to realize that it's not about you, the politician, it's about them. You give people the power and the control and with that comes the feeling that they are truly having an impact on the Democratic system. From the start, we had people throughout the country who had little to no campaign or political experience who were running things for us. When we started getting some money and hitting it big, we let these same people stay in control and that was one of the greatest parts of the campaign for me. Empowering folks who before had felt disenfranchised.
3. Can the liberals ever take back the flag and the idea of patriotism from the right?
Dean: Probably not. People in the U.S. equate patriotism with the military and liberals are generally peaceloving. Also, the argument that patriotism requires intelligence and dissent is not something that people understand intuitively. The reason that the Republicans have such control over the idea of patriotism is that they play off intrinsic emotions attached to nationalism.... (I'd be bullshitting if I went on because I think I was distracted at this point by trying to gauge whether he was a better looking guy in person than he is on camera. My conclusion was yes, he is more handsome in person than he appears on TV.)
4. Do you think that the war on terrorism can be addressed through non-violence?
Dean: Yes and no. I don't think terrorists have a reason for what they do. They're brainwashed murderers. They've been pulled in by fundamentalism and somewhere the message and purpose became subservient to their undying allegience to the cause. Their demands couldn't be met if we tried. However, what we can do is to decrease the sympathy that people have for terrorists so that they have less safe harbor and so that more people are willing to turn them in. As you know, George W. Bush has been instrumental in increasing sympathy for terrorists in the Arab world.
Other anecdotal observations....
Dean raved about the Jon Stewart Crossfire interview. Said that shows like crossfire are a disservice to democracy. Said that he loves John Stewart.
At the reception, I tried to offer him a drink, but he insisted on looking at the juice content of all the different drinks we had sitting out. After realizing that none of the drinks had any real juice in them, he drank some type of strawberry punch.
At dinner, he went around the table and asked where we were all from and what we were majoring in. He got into a conversation with one of the girls who, looking for sympathy, said that her parents made her go to Miami event hough she wanted to go to an art school. Dean said something to the effect of "You may not like this, but I agree with your parents. I think you ought to have a liberal education, one that provides you with some skills that might help you get a job, in addition to just studying what you want. You may change your mind about your career like I did. If that's the case, you'll have a much easier time transitioning with a liberal arts background than if you'd gone to an art school." After he said this, I said to Dean "That's why we like you, cause you're a straight shooter."
Dean's speech and Q & A were firey. There were more standing O's and fun crowd interactions than I can remember. On the whole, one of the five best nights of my life.