I met Eleanor Clift, Joe Klein and Eliot Spitzer tonight!

[Cassandra]

Very cool. I was at the Spitzer Lecture tonight (endowed by Eliot's parents) titled: "The Race for the Presidency: On the Campaign Trail", with Eleanor Clift, Joe Klein and Jon Meacham as moderator. It was a really excellent evening; I've always been a fan of Clift, but found myself enjoying Klein's responses more than I expected. In general, they are very cautiously optimistic about Kerry's chances and hope there's still time for him to gain the confidence of a larger portion of the electorate, and they both had scathing words about Bush and the way the Iraq War is being waged (and that it happened at all). At one point, Mr Meacham was trying word associations with political names. When he said Karl Rove, Klein thought about it, then thought about it some more and then finally took a deep breath and said, "political assassin". I asked him at the reception afterward if he would get into trouble if I posted that. He said probably but he didn't ask where it would be or warn me off more than that, and who knows, Rove might be flattered. In response to Dan Rather's name, Clift said, "victimized". What they said about political consultants, especially Dem ones, could make you weep. Klein said that what people really want is someone who isn't afraid to lead and that sometimes Kerry has been too worried about the political consequences of being out ahead of the pack. However, they had some wonderful things to say about him, personally. When asked what other Democrats they had liked, they had generally good things to say about the others but said that the way the election is going, the national security issue is front and center and probably Kerry has the best credentials for that fight. Clift said that Clark had looked good on paper, but hadn't worked out as well campaigning and that Dean was probably too hot for the straightjacket that modern campaigns have become. Clift said it was a pleasure to be with such an informed group; the lecture hall was close to full with a very enthusiastic crowd. I told Spitzer that I would happily vote for him no matter what he ran for and it was nice to see his parents again after so many years (I went to elementary school with his sister).
Next month: Paul Krugman!!!

[Cha]

1. Whoa! Thanks for that inside view

of the three different political stars!

From what I've heard of Klein I thought he could be for bush.
Glad to be mistaken..

You must have had a wonderful time.

I think Kerry is the best, too, even though I didn't vote for him in the primary or even start to get to know him until the convention..but he won me over..he and Edwards. So now Kerry will lead us out of the bushinc RAging Morass!

[Cassandra]

3. You're welcome!

Going into it, I didn't know there would be a reception, so that was a real thrill.

[faithnotgreed]

2. sounds great. i know eliot and eleanor are clearly

with the side of truth, esp eliot. and joe klein usually is but he sometimes has a little howard fineman in him it seems. when ive seen joe on charlie rose, he has been pretty tough on bush. then you see him with russert maybe, and he gets a little more swallowing his words against bush. guess i just want joe to clean the administrations clock but he needs to keep his job so he can get any of the truth out in the first place

and to his credit, joe did write that piece in time magazine in july that shone a light on the cia/military/pentagon feud that we know about but not most people....

thanks for sharing this. political assassin indeed.

[Cassandra]

4. Klein quoted something Fineman had said...

and the audience started booing.

[Cha]

5. Good to know!

[faithnotgreed]

7. are you serious? thats too funny~ i might boo just hearing about it

[Cassandra]

10. I had a chance to ask Eleanor...

how other pundits could stomach being on a program with Novak and did they all have a contract not to confront him? She said he is somewhat protected by his being part of the "club". She finds him pretty disgusting, too.

[oasis]

6. Good report. thanks.

[Old and In the Way]

8. Any talk of Spitzer getting tapped for Kerry's AG? I think he would be an

outstanding AG for Kerry and that's not good news for the Bush crime syndicate.

[Cassandra]

9. No. Everyone was concentrating...

on this election, first.

[Richardson08]

13. Spitzer for AG!!!The man is ruthless but he would be an excellent choice

Ask Richard Grasso and his cronies at the NYSE

[DeepModem Mom]

11. Thanks for reporting!

[Andromeda]

12. Thanks, Cassandra...

I like to read reports like this. It gives me hope.

[Warren DeMontague]

14. Cool. But I would say this to Joe Klein---

If Kerry's too "careful", and Dean is too "hot", just where is this magic Democrat who is forceful enough to lead the people but not too energetic to scare people off?--- and when does the media take some responsibility for foisting these same old tired caricatures of democrats off on the public, while giving a free pass to a barely sentient, illiterate Republican retard and portraying him as a great leader?

[Cassandra]

15. Actually, their opinion of Bush*...

is about the same as ours. They are disappointed by the bulk of the media, but also put a bit of responsibility on the public who, after many years of peace and prosperity, stopped doing the heavy lifting of democracy and became less involved and more interested in being entertained. He said that if nothing else, Bush has focused more people's attention on the real life consequences of a bad president.

[Warren DeMontague]

18. I dunno. I think they protesteth too much.

They're like the people who work at McDonalds complaining about all the fat customers. Yeah, the consumer bears some responsibilty-- but where is one supposed to look for actual content? (particularly if you're not that involved and informed to begin with) I just spent 2 weeks abroad and was absolutely flabbergasted by the coverage of the Iraq war that other nations see- namely, actual fighting, actual bleeding, actual dying. The media, at the behest of a few increasingly concentrated corporate owners, is censoring, diluting, and dumbing down the content of what we are presented with.. Sure, people should take some more responsibility to try to look past the smokescreen-- but can Klein, et al really blame them for accepting the shiny, pre-packaged bullshit that is thrown out by the media outlets-- and taking that as reality? I mean, an alien who just came to this planet and watched media coverage in the US for the past year would probably believe that only one human has died from the Iraq war, and her name was Laci Peterson.

[Cassandra]

16. Some other stuff I forgot..

Clift says that McLaughlin hates the war, criticizes Bush* regularly, lists the week's dead and is much closer to her position than he used to be. She also said that Kerry should pursue the claim that * wants a draft. She said she doesn't know if it's true or not, but it's no worse than what Republicans have been saying about Kerry lately.

[spooky3]

17. thanks--wish we could have been there!