The NYTimes is delivered to the house Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. It is unfathomable that there can be that much news in every category. Reading the whole paper is impossible and it is doubtful that anyone actually does it in one weekend. Even if they do, there’s more news the rest of the week. some would say it keeps people informed. Maybe, but in most categories it keeps people confused. Then of course, there are magazines, television and the internet. Really, its all too much.
Anyway, with my business destroyed and my life in shambles, it was time for me to look beyond another business, but luckily, there was always another campaign. This time it was Dukakis. admittedly, by his own explanation, he was not a great candidate and when he fired Campaign Manager John Sasso it was pretty much over. When Professor Dukakis spoke to my political communications class, he agreed that it was the stupidest decision he made during the campaign.
Wait wait wait! there was Something before Dukakis. Gary Hart. It was a wonderful campaign and he would have made a great President but Gary was his own worst enemy. He surprisingly won in New Hampshire. Which was fine except he had no real office and no political staff. Just people from his Senate Office and a few “strategists” who were clueless about the mundane tasks of putting a campaign together, like finding advance people to travel before the candidate and set up political events. We looked at his campaign office in DC, which was without any phones or people to make or answer calls and just a few of us created something out of nothing. Paige Reffe was hired as the Candidate Scheduler and I scheduled surrogates — everyone but Gary. My job was easier. There were no cell phones or computers to enable us to communicate. Often Gary was scheduled to do an event one place and while they were mid-air, he changed his mind and landed somewhere else, where he was unencumbered by staff. It was usually a nightmare.
The month before the final primary votes, (California and New Jersey were on the same day so save this information for later. ) Eli S.and I went to California to create family and celebrity events and organize/strategize, the campaign. The best part of this adventure was that i lived in the Beverly Wilshire and my room was nicer than the candidates. It was glorious, by that time i think that maybe David and I were married, but my room was in a secure area so he was searched by the SecretService every time he came to see me. They knew he who he was but wanted to have some fun.
Celebrity scheduling is not easy and I wont go into detail except to say Warren Beatty with whom I had worked before would decide he needed to strategize or do a cute commercial at 3am. The celebrity contacts were in my book and unbeknown to me Seth decided that he needed to speak to Jack Nicholson. He thankfully hung up when Jack answered. It was challenging and only once did I misplace Stephen King, who was with Admiral Gaylor — but it was briefly.
Anyway the night before the vote, Gary was at a fundraiser and we were surrounded with journalists and Papparazzi. Gary hated the press so I didn’t anticipate any problems. He would surely avoid them. Gary’s advance person was off having fun with the celebs. When he was about to leave I warned him that there were press outside and not to talk to them. For some reason and there is no way to understand it, Gary walked outside directly to the press, and when asked how the campaign was going, he said “fine, except Lee is working in LA and I got stuck in New Jersey.” As Jersey girl I knew that he would lose NJ and that was the end of the line for us.
More tomorrow… we’re just sayin’…. Iris
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