This afternoon Tom Vilsack was the featured newsmaker at the National Press Club luncheon. I took time off from school to attend as a guest of his HeartlandPac. Regular readers of Dailykos know that he and I have had an ongoing dialog about education and other issues. I have not endorsed him - or for that matter anyone else - as my choice for the presidential nomination, although it is quite clear that he is actively considering running.
The purpose of this diary is to present my perception of his presentation today. I took copious, albeit not verbatim, notes. Given that I was not on a computer, my first problem will be to decipher my chicken scratches (and the comparison may be insulting to the chickens. I will set the scene by describing the environment, the crowd, and then recount the presentation. I will then offer a few concluding observations.
The National Press Club Building is on 14th Street NW, only a few blocks from the White House. Public events are held on the 13th floor, which has a number of rooms that can be in use simultaneously. In fact I briefly stuck my head into the Holeman Room down the hall for a presentation co-sponsored by the Urban Institute and EducationNext (Andy Rotherham) about a new book on the role of collective bargaining in education reform - one presenter (Leo Casey of AFT) is a longtime electronic acquaintance, and it was nice to finally meet face to face. I was not the only one attempting to attend both events - I had brief interchange with Will Marshall of the Progressive Policy Institute at that first event.
The Vilsack event was being held in the Ballroom, which is well-equipped with equipment for video - broadcast and recording. If you watch the luncheons on C-Span, they come from this room. There is a dais at the front, separated by a heavy "rope" from the tables at which the rest of us will sit. Those on the dais will be key press people - perhaps who cover the speaker, perhaps of the leadership of the National Press Club - and a few guests of the Speaker. In this case those were the Governor's wife, Lt. Governor Sally Pederson, and Congressman Leonard Boswell of Iowa. The only press person on the dais I recognized on site was Susan Page, now Washington Bureau Chief of USA Today. There were other recognizable people around the room. Bruce Reed of the DLC was at a front table. I did not notice Al From, but that does not mean he wasn't present. I had a brief conversation with Joe Klein of Time Magazine, whose agent was my girlfriend in junior high school, so I used the occasion to pass on a message. I saw other people from the press, people from campaigns and think tanks. There was a woman at my table who had been vice-president(?) of the Motion Picture Association of America under Jack Valenti. The room was full. Apparently HeartlandPac had invited (and paid for) a number of people to ensure a full room and wide coverage.
The event officially started at 1 PM with lunch. The Vilsacks arrived shortly before that and were applauded on their entry. About 1:30, as people were finishing their meals, the host introduced Vilsack by noting that he was the first Democratic governor of Iowa since Harold Hughes, and mentioned Tom's roles as head of the Democratic Governors Association in 2004 (a position that Howard Dean had once held) and as head of the DLC in 2005, noting that another governor had been head of the DLC and then run for president. There were a few jokes about that, and then Gov. Vilsack began with his remarks.
There was no teleprompter, and I saw no notes. He began by saying that he was "here to talk about my country." He expressed his concern as a citizen and as a father of two children. He told about talking with a man of Indian background, an entrepreneur who had come hear because he wanted to come to a country where people thought it was the greatest country on earth. Vilsack then talked about participating in a Frank Luntz focus group at Renaissance Weekend that had about 25 14-20 year olds, in which only 5 or 6 believed that the US was the greatest nation on earth, and that none of whom thought it was important that the US be the number one nation. Vilsack used this, and the fact that most American adults do not believe that their children will have it better than they did to get into his first key point, that we are a nation of worried families.
He discussed how people are worried not only about things like terrorist threats, but also things like the response to Katrina. People worry about their economic future, that 46 million do not have health insurance. He mentioned our deficiency in energy, concerns about education. He used all of this, and other material, to lead to what was his main theme, the idea of community. He said, "People don't get the sense that there's help, a supporting community."
While I have very detailed notes, I will not recount the entire presentation. He talked for about 30 minutes, and then answered questions for another 30. But he effectively used one anecdote - he told about a priest he recent heard teaching children about the story of the loaves and fishes who described what happened as the power or community. The priest said the Jesus removed the fear of sharing. The Governor then said that unfortunately what we are seeing in our national government is not a removal of fear, but rather polarization for the sake of electoral advantage. The failure of the national government to respond to people's needs for solutions heightens their anxieties.
After talking about some of his successes in Iowa, where he has a Republican legislature, he said
our story is only one story of many stories across the nation.
He noted that this was true of many Democratic governors with Republican legislatures. He said they spoke to a different vision of America, yes it should be the safest nation on earth, but also a nation with a creative, inspiring economy that enabled people to dream big dreams. It should have leadership with integrity, a leadership that a willingness to listen to the other side, to combine the best ideas of both sides to improve the lives of the people they represented.
He noted that America has a vision of the self-reliant individual, but that the individual is always surrounded by a supportive community, and that we seem to have forgotten that. To get it back will require a sacrifice, and it will not be easy.
Perhaps the most moving anecdote he shared was about calling the 43 year old widow of a National Guard helicopter pilot who had been killed. The pilot had a split second decision to try to save his life and that of his co-pilot, which almost certainly would have meant the death of the 18 troops on board, or to attempt to save their lives at the cost of their own. The pilot died saving the lives of the others. When the governor was attempting to find the words to address the widow Mrs. Smith, she told him
those 18 men needed Brian more in that split-second than I will need him for the rest of my life.
Governor Vilsack pointed out that we as a nation we have not been called to sacrifice, as we should have been, and as he noted later in response to a question about the Iraq war, it is unfair to ask that the only sacrifices be by the military and their families.
He said that when we listened to those who aspired to political leadership talk about values to try to ascertain whether those values were important personally to the politician, from his own experience. He noted that he was raised in an orphanage, which was on kind of community that helped to support him. He added "I was adopted into a troubled family" and talked about his mother's problems with addictions. And yet he was surrounded by a supportive community, that people reached out to sustain him, and he mentioned a fifth grade teacher., and that the community not only helped him achieve, but also helped save his mother. He closed his remarks by saying that there were lots of Mrs. Smiths waiting to be asked, waiting to be called.
There were a couple of responses in Q&A worth recounting. He was asked why he won Iowa, despite being a Dem, and his response was
I think I won because I was a Democrat
. He connected that in part with Democrats believing in the concept of hope. To build communities requires hope. Fear keeps people from being willing to share.
A brief scan of some other things from Q & A:
government should set priorities, then budget according to those priorities.
SD abortion bill: he would prefer to emphasize life, adoption, and he would not support the SD bill
On restoration of voting rights for felons (which he has done) - he backed up to talk about things like early childhood education. He noted that a significant percent of his states inmates cannot read.
On Iraq - besides what was mentioned, he was quite pointed on a president seriously and fully evaluating all information before committing troops to battle to see if this is necessary, that if sent they should be fully equipped. He said that we have to plan not just for the best case, but also for the worst case. At this point we must help stabilize the situation, but should make clear that we have no intent of staying permanently and will leave when the Iraqis ask us to.
We had two great opportunities to come together as a nation. First after 9/11. Al we needed was to be asked. Instead the administration chose to take a partisan approach. Then again after Katrina, what if the president had used the occasion to urge us to rebuild the entire nation (Vilsack talked a lot during his remarks about the importance of rebuilding and improving infrastructure). It could have been a call to invest in our country, our future, our children. Instead what we have is squabbling.
We need that call. It ultimately has to come from our national leadership.
ON immigration - we do have to secure our borders, but we also need to recognize that we have between 10-13 million working here illegally. In some way we need to legitimize their presence - maybe they will have to pay fines, they cannot jump to the head of the line, but we have to have a realistic policy, because we are not going to deport them all.
On Religion and Government -- first he apologized to his Lt. Governor for not having yet read the book she gave him on the Founding Fathers and Religion. He noted that religion was important to individuals, and it needed to be respected and honored. We need to recognize that we respect and recognize all religion, and that we have to respect those for whom religion does not matter as well.
At one point he said that we don't need a nation of standardized test takers, we need a nation of creative and energetic learners.
That gives I hope a reasonably accurate summary of his remarks. Periodically I looked up from my note-taking to observe the audience. For most of the time the attention was absolute, almost rapt. There was some applause, particularly on the remark about his having won in Iowa because he was a Democrat. There may also have been some applause in his remarks about the care a Commander in Chief should be taking before committing troops.
I listened to some of the conversation after the event was over. I got the sense that for a first major address in Washington he came across pretty well, even I did not sense anything like the kind of response that Howard Dean generated with his famous set of remarks to if I remember correctly the DNC. Tom Vilsack is well versed in policy, thoughtful, and articulate. Like previous Democratic governors who have aspired to the presidency, he is comfortable with the details of policy. He does not come across as policy-wonkish a la Michael Dukakis or Al Gore. He is certainly not as naturally magnetic and charismatic as a Bill Clinton. He conveys a sense of thoughtfulness, of genuineness. Without this counting as an endorsement, let me illustrate from my own experience of today.
In our ongoing electronic correspondence Governor Vilsack has said that his wife and I share a lot of common ideas about education, and that at some point she'd like to talk with me. At the end of the event I went up to the head table. When I introduced myself to Christy Vilsack as 'teacherken" her face lit up and she told me that her husband had said that she might meet me today. She talked about how she felt that we had a lot of overlap in our views on education, and reiterated her desire at some point to sit down and talk.
I then moved down to the Governor. I should note that they sat, as is the custom at NPC, on opposite sides of the podium, with an NPC person closer to the podium than either of them, so that the governor had not heard out interchange. The only time he had previously met me, I had a full beard and was dressed quite informally He knew I had shaved (to appear as Ben Franklin on the occasion of that gentleman's 300th birthday on January 17th), but I had not told him I would be wearing a serious 3-piece suit. As my turn to speak with him came and we each put out our hands, at first he was looking at me, and then before I could speak he recognized me and his face lit up. H immediately said that I had to speak with Christy who wanted to meet me, and I explained I already had. We chatted for about 2 minutes.
I have sat with the man for 85 minutes, and talked with him on the phone for 30. I have found that he actually listens, that he does not just talk at me. I do not consider myself anyone of major importance. I was actually a bit surprised to have been invited today. I sense that Tom Vilsack will do very well in the retail aspects of running for higher office. I have no doubt that he intends to fully explore that opportunity, although for now his main focus is in helping more Democrats get elected as governors. I note that I made my arrangements to attend through a woman at DeweySquare, which is a heavyweight political consulting team, including among its principals Michael Whouley, who is the one who came in and helped Kerry win in Iowa - he is a real heavyweight, having been National Field Director for Clinton/Gore in 1992 and National Campaign manager for Gore in 1996. He's based in Boston, and I do not know if he was there. I did see several of the other senior staffers who are based in DC. And there were a batch of people from HeartlandPac as well.
For what it is worth -- I acknowledge that Tom Vilsack is not really on anyone's radar right now for the nomination. Some people say either that he is positioning himself for a VP slot, or maybe to be Secretary of Education. In preference polls if he shows at all it as at 1% or less. And yet we are almost 2 years out from the first primaries and caucuses. As late as December of 1975, Jimmy Carter was an almost total unknown, drawing only about 3% in most preference polls. Carter happened to tap into an important theme -- his mantra that he would never lie to the American people struck a real chord after Watergate. We do not know what might strike a similar chord. Come next January, Tom Vilsack will not be tied down by political office, and - like Jimmy Carter - will be free to campaign full time. Remember what I noted about his skill as a retail politician. Who knows, perhaps his emphasis on community, on Democrats being a party of hope (now where have we heard that word hope before?) might strike a chord and resonate.
At these events at the press club, the final question is always somewhat humorous. Let me end by quoting the question and the answer, because I think they are quite relevant.
What do you most like about New Hampshire?
It's Governor John Lynch!