After reading media reports and watching Paul Hackett on television you get the impression that he is a decisive, strong, no nonsense, aggressive person who doesn't take shit and tells-it-like-it-is kind of candidate. He may be all those things but after having met him in L.A., I saw a whole different side of Hackett that has been portrayed. He actually came across as quite humble and introspective. I was actually shocked. I was expecting bravado and testosterone, instead I saw thoughtfulness. I saw the complexities of the simplicity of Paul Hackett.
GENERAL THOUGHTS
I am so glad that I met Hackett in person for I saw a whole different side of him than is being portrayed in the media. Hackett comes across as a simple guy who just a year ago was a marine fighting in Fallujah and nobody knew or cared who he was. Fast forward a year later he is running for Senate in the swingiest of all swing states, Ohio.
I saw a man who is running for office NOT because of the title or power but simply because of two reasons: 1. He loves his kids so much that he wants them to have a better life. He has seen the devastation of what Ohio is going through in the past 5 year and the destruction of middle America. He is very fearful that his kids won't have the opportunities that he had. 2. He was really raised to believe in service for one's country. He was raised in a traditional Irish Catholic home where John F. Kennedy and FDR are considered great presidents. His parents instilled in him the famous Kennedy line "Ask NOT what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country".
INTELLECTUAL POWER
The question and answer period with Paul Hackett could have gone on forever. Not because he could spew out thousands of facts or talk about the intricacies of policy, but because Hacket is so interesting and easy to talk to. He talks like a regular guy not like a politician; someone who you could talk over beer with (I know this has been said before but he really is like this) . Furthermore you get the impression that he talks from his heart and his gut.
He comes across as truly authentic. You get the impression that people voted for him NOT because they agreed with EVERYTHING he believes in but because he is SO REAL. In terms of intellectual power, he does come across as intelligent and has the intellectual power to be a Senator NOT because he can spew facts but because he can take a complex topic and voice it in a simple way that people can understand.
HIS BASE
Sherrod Brown said an interesting thing in the lengthy Roll call article about the Ohio Senate Primary race titled "Brown vs Hackett" that came out January 25. "Brown contends that Hackett lacks an overall base of support..'His home base is Cincinatti period,' Brown said. 'It's not an ideological base. It's not an organizational base. It's not a political base in any seeming way that you look at it.'" I have to disagree. Hackett has a base. It is rural America. He really speaks to them.
He says that contrary to popular belief, rural America is hungry for the Democratic message. Democrats just don't talk to them now. Rural America is the Reagan Democrats who have now gravitated to the Republican party because they think Democrats are wimps. They are definitely willing to come back to the Democratic party if you just reach out to them. They are the hard working blue collar voters who love hunting and fishing thus the environment who just want their god damn jobs back, think Ed Schultz.
Hackett's communication style attracts these voters. Hackett says these voters love confrontational politics, they respect you more. They are not turned off by edgy comments such as Hackett's "chicken-hawk reference to Bush, or saying GOP has being taken over by religious fanatics. Rural America is NOT necessarily Christian conservative voters. Contrary to popular belief, they themselves see the GOP going overboard fawning over the religious right. They are fearful that the pendulum has swung too far to the right particularly after the Terry Schiavo fiasco.
Joe Klein totally missed the boat on what Hackett is all about. He was viewing Hackett through elitest East coast "glasses" rather than viewing him in the context of rural America.
THE PRIMARY
Hackett knows he is the underdog in this primary but he is a fighter. According to that Roll call article, "I'll work him into the ground" a confidant Hackett said of Brown. "It's that simple". He realizes that 40% of Democrats come from Brown's base of Northeast Ohio. However, he also realizes then that 60% of the Democrats come from else where. Thus he is not only campaigning in Northeast Ohio but in rural, central, and southern Ohio as well. He said that if just the traditional primary voters come out he probably would lose. That is why he is trying to shake the Ohio establishment tree and drum out all the other Democrats.
I do not know if Hackett will win the primary and if I had to bet, I would bet that he would not. However, if he does win the primary I would definitely bet that he would beat DeWine handedly. I am not sure I could say that about Brown.
FINAL THOUGHTS
After having met him, I like Hackett even more. He doesn't claim he has all the answers and has admitted he has made mistakes.
I did not see Paul as a cartoon character or an action hero but rather just a simple guy who was tired of being tired and wants a better life for his kids.