Yes, ladies and gentlemen, this is about the effect that onehour with a kind of presidential person can have on a guy. A guylike Larry Schiavone. A guy who has indeed been a lifelong Democrat.We are talking double-digit years of voting straight Democratictickets. We are talking South Side, hard-core, 35-year-old,union-loving Democrat.
And then last week Larry had this odd little experience. Itseems that he was cordially invited to sit down for lunch with thisother guy named George Bush.
So he did. Right there in Billy Goat's Tavern. LarrySchiavone sat down at a table. He sat down at that table as aDemocrat - a lukewarm, but lifetime Democrat. And he got up from itas a Republican.
But don't tell his Dad.
Don't tell his alderman either.
"It's hard to explain," says Larry. "I know you can laugh atme, and say, it was only an hour meeting. But it really made a bigimpact on me."
And that's the thing. Because Larry Schiavone isn't the onlyguy around who got walloped by the perverse power of a presidentialencounter. Granted he was one of a select group of four sitting atthe table with the Prez. But the truth is, lots of us here in towngot stupid and giddy about George in the flesh being close by for afew hours. Lots of us who also are actual Democrats, who hated thewar in the Persian Gulf, who abhor the fact that Clarence Thomas issitting on the Supreme Court, lots of us stopped what we were doing,listened to the radio accounts of George doing the Regular Guy Thing,and stood around with stupid grins on our face, saying, "Hey, that'scool, old George was just down the block."
What is it about the presidency? It's not like royalty. Afterall, this is a guy who works for us. We elect him. And his job isostensibly to please us. Of course, guys like Larry S. have notexactly been pleased the past couple of years. What's to be pleasedabout? Larry has three kids and the school-age ones all go toparochial school. Not because that had been the plan, but becausepublic education in America is pretty darn corroded. And Larry alsospent a few weeks this year out of a job. And when his pal toldPresident Bush at lunch that the construction business hadn't beenthis bad since 1980, well he says Bush seemed surprised by that.Kind of like he didn't know about it.
But on the other hand, Larry also says, "Hey, everybody sayshe's doing a terrible job. But when we sat down and startedtalking, he seemed like he is real concerned about working somethingout. I don't know, I got the feeling that maybe he could get a lotof this solved."
Powerful stuff hanging out with the president. It is. It wouldbe for a lot of us. So powerful that a person just might consider aslight alteration in in his political bent. "Listen," says Larry,"these days, I've been a pretty unenthusiastic Democrat, anyway.
"Bush very well could have my vote this fall, because I don'tknow who half these new Democrats are. But now I know a bit aboutGeorge Bush. And I think he's a real genuine guy."
About 100 years ago, a woman named Fanny Fern said a very smartthing. She said, "The way to a man's heart is through his stomach."It seems to still work. One burger, one ballot.
The Fanny Fern School of politics strikes again.
No comments:
Post a Comment