My one (and probably only) political post
It’s 2am and I just woke from a dream …
It was a quite cycle in the democratic political race to the convention and on to the white house. I was a small town reporter and had my one chance to ask Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama one question each but Mr. Obama was not present. I didn’t want to add to the current back and forth of “he said / she said” sound bites so I happened upon an idea. I would ask each the same question. Here it is …
Imagine for a moment that it is now three years into *your* presidency. What has been your greatest accomplishment thus far ?
Senator Clinton smiled and said; “I’d like to answer that with a story. There was this UPS driver and he driving in this small town on the Eastern Shore. The roads were terrible and his packages were tossed all over the truck. He wished for better roads so his job would be easier. As president I would be proud that I improved the lives of low income and middle class Americans.”
I thought about that answer a bit, wrote down my notes on my reporter’s pad and thanked Senator Clinton for her time. I stood up and asked around where I might find Senator Obama.
It turned out, he was taking the news cycle off to be with his family. So, I headed out of the auditorium and looked for the Barack Obama bus. A ride with another reporter, heading back to his hotel, got me downtown to a coffee shop where I spied the bus and ran to see if I could board for a short question with the Senator. The politely explained he was taking time for his family. But Mr. Obama must have heard me at the door of the bus and said it was “OK, let him on”. Before I had a chance to speak, the Senator came up and explained that he had some relatives in this part of the country and he was taking a few hours to visit as their health was in decline and he did not know when he’d be able to see them again. Then he turned and said; “did you want to ask me a question?” I explained what I had done back at the auditorium and that Senator Clinton had already taken time to answer. I did not give any details of Hillary’s answer, only that she was kind enough to indulge this small town reporter. Then I told him my one question …
Imagine for a moment that it is now three years into *your* presidency. What has been your greatest accomplishment thus far ?
Just then one of his “handlers” came up and let me know that Senator Obama was not taking questions and was late for a family event. But Mr. Obama interrupted and smiled for a moment.
In a kinder, less oratory voice than I had heard him use before, he said, “That’s a nice question.” He went on to say; “assuming it three years from now, and I am president, I would want my greatest accomplishment to be the renewed belief in America, not only here, but abroad. People need to believe in themselves, their community, their friends, and their country. Too many places in the world do not see America as a friend. And too many people do not see the government - local or in Washington - as an active participant in their community. The president is just one man, but represents an entire nation. That man must spend every minute of every day “leading”. My hope is I will have lead this nation out from under it’s cloak of cynicism.”
The Illinois senator the looked at me and said simply; “I want to be with my family now. Will you excuse me.” then he stood up and stepped off the bus and walked up the path to a small house where we had just arrived.
As before, I thought about that answer a bit, wrote down my notes on my reporter’s pad and thanked the Senator for his time.
I wrote up my notes and submitted them to my editor. My editor thought my reporting technique was a bit odd but followed that my question was a god way of getting a different angle on the candidates. I kept to the facts as a reporter should. The piece showed up in our area paper a couple days later.
As a reporter, my job is to write the news. I’m not an editorialist. So, my reporter’s pad only had the facts but, that night, I made an entry in my personal journal about my question, why I had asked it, and what I took away from listening to the two Senators.
21-March-2008: interviewed the last two Democratic candidates
Hillary Clinton answered with an obvious but uninformed story of rural America. While that UPS driver may exist elsewhere, he and she do not exist on the Eastern Shore. You see, the roads here are surprisingly good. There are a few washboards to be found but for the most part roads are in good shape. The plite of the UPS driver is not the roads. It is the long hours. To get from the shipping hub to the last house on the route and back takes a 10 or even 12 hour day. The bigger challenge of the Eastern Shore is “opportunity”. This, like vast tracks of the United States, is farm country. Work is hard; wages are low; and the opportunity to do something more is limited. The Eastern Shore needs economic diversity.
Barack Obama answered with a look to the future and he made it clear that the current climate of problems are, for the most part, all interrelated. Jobs, economics, foreign policy, welfare, and even politicians need to recognize things are not good for America. There is a lack of trust. The President of the United States can not solve all the nation’s or the world’s problems. But, acting as a “leader” with all that that word fosters in one’s imagination, the President can touch the individuals and focus the attention to turn things around.
I realized, as a journalist, it was like an Eisenhower moment - the difference is between fighting battles vs waging war. To be successful, you needed to look at the whole picture and find a solution that worked for the whole picture.
I put down my pen and closed my journal.
Time to go back to sleep.
