Dear Friends,
I am sitting at my laptop in my room at The Plaza hotel in New York City, looking out my 12th floor window at Central Park as the day begins, Tuesday, October 19, 2004, two weeks before our fateful election day. Yesterday morning I left my suburban Boston home to travel to New York to take part in a remarkable evening, the Salute to Democracy Dinner. A forensic psychologist by day, many of you know that my long time passion is the preservation of the liberal legacy of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt and the New Deal. Our Franklin D. Roosevelt Heritage Museum in Worcester, Massachusetts (http://www.fdrheritage.org) is the centerpiece of that effort, but I also proudly serve on the Board of Governors of the Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute located at the FDR Presidential Library and Museum in Hyde Park, New York, the ancestral home of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt (http://www.feri.org).
As a member of the dinner planning committee and patron of the Salute to Democracy Dinner in New York last evening, I was overwhelmed at our collaborative accomplishment of bringing together so many wonderful people to advance the Roosevelt legacy, and celebrate the contributions of the great historian Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. and economist John Kenneth Galbraith. It was awe-inspiring to greet and visit with some of the most notable people of our time and times past last evening. An early discussion with writer Eric Alterman of the Center for American Progress, The Nation Magazine and MSNBC focused on statistical analyses of the latest presidential and congressional polling data. Picking up a copy of USA Today yesterday you would have been greeted by the headline that Bush was 8 points up over Kerry in the latest Gallup poll. Our discussion of the poll's internals, the minimal difference between the candidates in the RV data, the flawed methodology of the LV models employed, and of course a discussion of the incumbent 50% rule, and the polling in the ten battleground states that will decide this election evidently caused Mr. Alterman to send many a guest my way before the dinner to discuss why Kerry now has the Big Mo and is going to win. Imagine my sense of accomplishment when none other than Bill Moyers told me last evening after our discussion that he would "be able to sleep a lot better tonight" after analyzing the polling data and what it really means to this race. But that was just the beginning of this wonderful evening.
It was such a pleasure to meet and speak to so many wonderful people last night, including Walter Cronkite, Geraldine Ferraro, Ted Sorenson, Senators George McGovern and Gary Hart, among many others. I had a wonderful discussion with Senator McGovern about my pride in being a young resident of Massachusetts in 1972 when our state was the only state to award its electoral votes to Mr. McGovern, and I recalled proudly handing out bumper stickers and pins after the election that said "Nixon: 49, America: 1." Senator McGovern asked me if I had any of those bumper stickers left, remembering fondly that message from Massachusetts after his presidential run over 30 years ago. While talking with Senator McGovern, Henry Kissinger made his way over and warmly embraced the senator, and as I observed the two reminisce, I thought about the years past, about the Vietnam war that has been made to figure so prominently in this election year, and about those who fought the Vietnam war in the halls of power so many years ago in the Johnson and Nixon administrations present at our dinner.
We had wonderful speeches and reminiscences about the legacy of the Roosevelts and our guests of honor Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. and John Kenneth Galbraith, including addresses by Senator McGovern, Dr. Kissinger (who spoke of the need for political healing in our troubled times), Ted Sorenson and Dr. Schlesinger himself. It was a true tribute to the legacy of our progressive past, and our hope in the future. While not a Democratic party event, the infectious enthusiasm and hope in the election of Kerry for president was palpable, and came up many times during the official and unofficial events of the evening. It was also wonderful to see my friends Anne Roosevelt (a granddaughter of FDR and Eleanor Roosevelt) and Bill vanden Heuvel, one of the great preservers of the legacy of the New Deal during the past 40 years.
My favorite time last evening was sitting down with David Ginsburg, who as a young lawyer went to work for FDR's New Deal with Ben Cohen, Tommy Corcoran, Sam Rosenman and other greats, and who became a clerk for Supreme Court justice, William O. Douglas. Mr. Ginsburg was a co-founder of Americans for Democratic Action and the author of the Kerner Commission report on civil disorders, which warned that the United States was in danger of becoming two nations -- one black, one white. Talking with Mr. Ginsburg last evening about his experiences in the FDR White House was an event I shall long treasure as I think about the days when progressives will return to the White House in the 21st Century to set America back on course.
As the new day begins here in New York City, I am preparing to return to Massachusetts, newly invigorated to the tasks that lie ahead in helping to elect John F. Kerry our next president. Despite all our setbacks as a nation under George W. Bush in the last four years, it is truly a remarkable thing to have been part of the planning and participation of this special Salute to Democracy dinner last evening. The lions of liberalism are still roaring, and long may they roar!
Here is Liz Smith's "gossip" column about the event written last week announcing our get together:
DEMS WILL have even that uber Republican, Dr. Henry Kissinger on hand for their "Salute to Democracy Dinner" at the Plaza on Oct. 18. This one honors the birthdays of Arthur Schlesinger Jr., 87, and John Kenneth Galbraith, 96 -- both denizens of the Kennedy administration. The aegis for the evening is the Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute. So far, along with Dr. K., we'll see Betty Bacall, Bill Moyers, Betty Comden, Phyllis Newman, Ted Sorenson and Kitty Hart. The wonderful Tobie Roosevelt herself handed me an invite. Call (845) 486-1150 and go; you can be as "liberal" as Henry Kissinger for just one night!