The Great Debate

Joe’s entrance provided a brief burst of brilliant theatre - he entered late but abruptly with a retinue of three or four people who remained offstage in the shadows.  He flashed his prematurely graying blond hair and Ipana smile all round and called everyone by their first names, going round the circle glad-handing the moderator (Lou DiNatale), the reporters (Bay State Banner's Yawu Miller and Boston Globe's Kevin Cullen) and my august self before taking his seat.  His transformation was not so much from mere mortal to showman, as from icon to mere mortal, albeit a flashy mortal.  “Well, this is it,” I thought, “here he is.  This is the biggest moment I’m going to get to launch Timesizing - because the global Name is here incarnate in the flesh, and whatever rocket fuel it can provide for the 'idea launch' is ready and waiting.”

Joe seemed quite genuine, so there was an immediate clash between the iconic expectations and the regular guy before us.  He was not pompous or arrogant.  He was not particularly condescending or weighted with noblesse oblige.  When I had to begin by shooting down (yet again!) the contorted rumor that I was a Kennedy straw, Joe was tolerant of my necessary gruffness toward the Kennedy’s, seeming to understand that in my position I’d no desire to fuel the "straw" rumor.  In his comments on my rumor remarks, he simply said he’d met me only once before at the forum on economic insecurity at Faneuil Hall in January, and he went on to say that his people had run into me all over the district in all kinds of weather (both exaggerations) as I got signatures - a tough job for a congressional run - and I deserved to be taken seriously, with my economic work on behalf of the people of the District and the country.  That was a great-spirited thing for him to say.  He treated me better than a lot of my 'fellow' Republicans.

He seemed to appreciate it when I called him a sportsman for being one of only three incumbents who agreed to debate.  It was at this point that Lou DiNatale exclaimed “This is a love fest!”  And all laughed.

I had to scramble to get my message in because fifteen minutes were past on the rumor distraction and other stage business, but I had my message sharply soundbyted and worked it in quite well.  The only two embarrassing moments were my reference to “all of you out there in TV land” and beginning a set of contrasts that wasn’t fully thought through.  However, the lifeboat, butterfly and bloating Band-Aid metaphors came off quite well.

Meanwhile, Joe, dubbed by radio talkhost Howie Carr as "the Wizard of Ah's," was pronouncing socialism as “socialization” and had started to “ah” a bit - a friend counted 158 in the course of the half-hour debate.  The funniest thing was when Lou DiNatale couldn’t get over my calling Herbert Hoover the “angel of capitalism,” and kept coming back to it like a Greek chorus.

Walked out of the studio.  Chatted with Lou awhile in the parking lot.  Zoomed to Tufts radio for a 45-minute talkshow with Tony Schinella.  Zoomed to Burlington to get to work at 8 pm at Individual Inc.  Got pulled over by a Winchester cop on Route 3 for speeding.  When he heard the circumstances, got off with a warning.  Walked into work pretty much on time.  "Ran the gauntlet" of congratulatory colleagues among the news reviewers en route to cubicle.  Got "pulled over" by the boss and - DOWNSIZED!

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