At 5 PM on a Tuesday, have someone tell you that a person you want to interview will be speaking at a Dukakis fundraiser that night.
Watch enviously as a man says his white ticket was taken from him and the woman at the table gives him a blue one. Wonder if you could get away with that.
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When they begin to let people trickle in, one at a time, wonder what you will do. Will you fumble? Will you say you are at table seven? Will they check for your name on a list? Consider various names to use. Note that some press people are walking out. Find yourself in a beige dungeon room with a few other press people nibbling at a tray of food. One will tell you that no press is allowed in to hear the speech.
Hear Dukakis yet another time talk about his immigrant father. When he says, “What an incredible country this is,” think that he probably might believe it.
Wait for your interviewee to speak. This never happens. Follow your intuition, which says you will find this person at table 14. Wend your way there. Find it empty. See the person’s name listed as a contributor on the printed cards on the tables.
Think back that the most inspiring speaker of all, the man with true passion, was Illinois Attorney General Neil Hartigan, who spoke of human dignity, lost jobs, and arrogant Republicans.
