© the eyeranian

Meeting Howard Dean

It is not often that I am left with nothing to say, particularly the nervous uneasiness associated with meeting a celebrity or famous person has never been an issue for me. I usually speak my mind and at times make comments that make others shudder in presence of the supposed "important people". Recently I told a very top executive of a huge corporation that he should've been shot (of course not literally) for certain decisions he has made and he was shocked as obviously nobody had ever questioned his choices. Two years back, I told this very famous actor/producer/director that he should've stuck to acting as his movies suck. Hey, it's MY opinion and I'm allowed to it, right?

When it comes to politicians, this particular trait of mine expands even further and is far more evident. Years of hanging out with, occasionally lobbying and often aggravating various politicians has made me lose most respect for the men and women who are usually entrusted with making very important decisions for us and I find it really difficult to not relay such sentiments to them whenever I get a chance (one day I'll tell the story of being "excluded" from a party attended by a certain member of British royal family.)

But yesterday was a rare occasion when I actually froze and could not say a single thing. Here's what happened:

I'm one of the hosts for an event that will be attended by Governor Howard Dean, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton and Senator Jon Corzine in Los Angeles on October 15 (let me know if you want tickets, they are $100). On Friday, all organizers and hosts were invited to join a conference call with Howard Dean. I called in early out of being a bit anxious I suppose.

One of the organizers was speaking, mainly going over how this call is going to be handled. I could tell not many had called in yet and most of the conversation was between two organizers. Then there was some silence, followed by one of the organizers asking "Governor, are you with us?" and there was the familiar voice of Howard Dean with "yes John" (or whatever his name was) or something to that nuance.

There was more silence momentarily but then Dean asked who was already connected and invited them to chat (can't recall his exact words). Nobody was there to say anything at all. So, here was my opportunity, I have him on-line and can say or ask whatever I want.

I must admit that I did not get in to the "Dean thing" during his campaign, although my cousin once successfully convinced me that he was indeed the best candidate to support. I guess as long as Kucinich was around, Dean sounded too close to center for my taste. But I still can't deny the fact that the man almost single-handedly changed the course of this and perhaps all future elections in this country.

Regardless of how you like him or not and agree or disagree with his politics, it is hard to ignore that Dean introduced new ways to organize and reach out, built a campaign on support from the huge army of disfranchised voters out there and raised plenty of money without compromising his principals. If the campaign had not self-destructed and was not so poorly managed, who knows what could've been achieved by this experiment.

So, what do I now ask the man who was on the cover of every important publication out there up to a few months ago? Inquire about his personal wrap-up of how his campaign went? Do I ask him about his take and retrospective on his now famous tirade speech in Iowa? Should I ask how he now views the role of Joe Trippi and whether he thinks his one-time campaign manager blew it for him? Could I touch on how he was really politically and publicly finished after the campaign and now with his Democracy for America project he is doing such great work? Do I praise him for his focus on the Senate races at the moment, trying to re-claim it so certain appointments and also legislation be harder or impossible to pass? There was so many things I could've said but probably for the first time, I had nothing to state.

The awkward silence went on for a few minutes, then finally someone started asking a question and that made a couple of more people come out of the hiding and for the next 10 minutes or so, some asked questions while others made statements that sounded like they were meant as questions. The actual conference call started shortly after that, Corzine also joined in and probably talked more than anyone else.

That's how I "met" Howard Dean and have little to show for it.

Posted by Pedram at September 19, 2004 10:25 AM