View from the ‘Bridge

It’s lunch time now and that means I finally have a chance to write about my lunch with Deval Patrick last Friday.

First of all, yes, despite the fact that there’s no food in the picture below I really did have lunch with Deval and 5 others at Harvest Restaurant in Harvard Square. You can read more about this in my first post of the Deval Patrick Lunch series.

Not that anything groundbreaking or secretive was said at the lunch, but I can’t actually talk about what we discussed. This is because when I first introduced myself to Deval, he said something along the lines of: “oh, I’ve heard of you. We have bloggers [on the campaign] who told me to watch out for you.” He was joking around, of course, but I think this startled the Harvard Law professor who sponsored the lunch, and he made me agree that everything was off the record. Unfortunately, that hadn’t occurred to me when I asked for suggestions from readers of what to ask him. Still, it was an interesting lesson for me that, even though I write this blog out of a desire to share my opinions for no compensation, the lines between “professional and amateur,” and “public and private” are blurred when it comes to internet journalism.

At any rate, though I can’t really talk here about the conversation substance, I do think it would be appropriate to share my own personal thoughts on the man I’m supporting for Governor.

In short, I was nothing short of amazed by Deval and the absolute ease and comfort he with which he conversed with us. This is a man that, despite humble roots, has held high ranking positions in some of the richest corporations on Earth and within the U.S. Department of Justice. Yet here he was, talking and joking like old-buddies for nearly two hours with a group of students and young professionals, none of which he had ever met and all under the age of 30.

Politically coming of age in Minnesota in the 1990’s I was privileged to have witnessed and personally known the late Senator Paul Wellstone. Despite being a lefty, Jewish college professor from the East Coast, Wellstone had an amazing ability to connect with “ordinary” Minnesotans like rural farmers or iron ore miners. Not that the group Deval was speaking to at my lunch was quite as different from him as farmers were from Wellstone, but time and time again throughout the meal I thought of Wellstone for this very reason. He connected to each one of us, relating to every person on a very personal level: whether about one person’s time spent in South Africa, another’s interest in Commonwealth Development issues, or not only knowing about but having seen the actual blog post I wrote about him.

And for both Deval and Wellstone, humor is a main tool in facilitating those connections. While not quite ready for a stand-up act, Deval joked and teased with us in a way so similar to Wellstone. That is, respectful enough of the fact that you are a voter who can help determine the course of his career, but hard-hitting and on-target enough that I felt like I was talking to a man that knew me as well as my closest friends.

Not only did I see in Deval the same ease and comfort level with people that Wellstone was able to capitalize on, but I was also in awe of the extreme depth of knowledge and true passion about issues that always made Wellstone so impressive to me. Having spent countless hours in my life both volunteering and employed on political campaigns, I know that most politicians can speak ad-nauseum about countless issues. But to me it seems that they tend to lack an important honest-to-god interest in what the speak about, and what they say is clearly drafted to fit in five second news clips and television commercials. While some say Wellstone gave in to much to this reality of modern politics, I sensed in everything Deval said the same passion, desire, and true commitment to public service that was undeniable in Wellstone of the early 1990’s (and I would argue which persisted until his death in 2002).

The truth is that Massachusetts of 2006 is different in so many ways than the Minnesota of 1990 that it would take an entire blog dedicated to the topic to describe. And, unfortunately, the as a black man even in Massachusetts today, Deval Patrick has more hurdles to overcome than Wellstone did as Jew in Minnesota 20 years ago. So whether Deval’s personality can translate into dedicated support like it did for Wellstone is still in question for me. Also, everything I’ve written is gleaned from a two hour, private meeting with the man and honor that most voters won’t have the benefit of. Wellstone was also quite successful in translating his one-on-one style to large public gatherings and television spots. I honestly don’t know yet whether Deval will be able to do this in his campaign.

On a very personal level, however, I now have absolutely no doubt in my mind that I want to see Deval Patrick as our next governor. For me, Paul Wellstone was a hero second only to my own parents. To now meet a politician that reminds me of him in so many ways comforts me knowing that, while Wellstone may be gone, his spirit lives on in people like Deval Patrick.

This entry was posted on Monday, April 24th, 2006 at 1:05 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.