If you could have dinner for 3 hours with anyone alive...

[Pototan]

... to talk politics, who would you choose.

I would choose George Conway.

[yourout]

1. Abraham Lincoln.

[Pototan]

2. On edit, I added alive.

But your reply beat me to it.

[yourout]

17. In that case. Thom Hartman

Or Bernie.

[Enter stage left]

3. Barack Obama, second choice, Kamala Harris.

[avebury]

5. Kamala would probably also

cook the dinner too.

[Trueblue1968]

40. Hillary and Kamala

[BOSSHOG]

4. General Wesley Clark

A rational view of the military relative to politics

[elleng]

8. YES!!!!!

[maveric]

6. Mel Brooks

I’d love to hear his stories and pick his brain.

[JoseBalow]

14. I came here to say Mel Brooks too!

[maveric]

20. He's pure comedic genius. Pushing 100. Was at the Battle of the Bulge...

Five of his films are in my all time top ten.

[jalan48]

7. Bernie.

[spooky3]

9. Lawrence O'Donnell. Or, if he's not available, Jasmine Crockett. Nt

[avebury]

10. Pete Buttigieg

He is unbelievably smart, a thoughtful speaker, and cute as a bug.

[elleng]

28. GREAT one!!!

[underpants]

11. David Gergen

Although it appears that his health is failing.
I always appreciated his commentary.

[Meowmee]

12. No one really

I would just like my father back. He was the smartest person I have ever known.

[SheltieLover]

18. ...

[applegrove]

25. I used to talk politics with my Dad when I came home from university and was living at home.

He was so great at it. A gifted observer I would say.

[MontanaMama]

41. Oh same!

My dad was the smartest most practical person I ever knew. He made me believe I was amazing. I used to call him every day on my way home from work to talk about anything and everything. He died really young, in his 60’s. I miss him terribly.

I’m happy he isn’t living through this mess and I’d give anything to be able to talk with him now.

[Meowmee]

46. So sorry for your loss

I always said that I wanted to die the same day as my father did because I didn’t wanna live in the world without him.

[keithbvadu2]

13. Donald Trump... 3 hours of wasting his time. And he cannot text or talk on the phone or interact with others.

[spooky3]

22. How would you keep your dinner down? Nt

[The Madcap]

60. It would only work if the SS

Wouldn't harm you for giving him three hours of curses.

[Aristus]

15. Angela Merkel.

Just to be able to visit Germany again, have a delicious authentic schnitzel and the world’s best beer, and brush up on my German.

And to get some Central European perspective on the USA’s late-capitalism, fall-of-Rome situation.

[SheilaAnn]

57. OMG, me too. I love her and find her intelligence and political savvy sooooo interesting. Would love to discuss the new

US regime about to commence.

[Aristus]

67. A couple of things that people unfortunately overlook about the Germans:

Their bone-dry wit. And their wonderful personal warmth once they get to know you. I have been the beneficiary of German generosity on more than one occasion.

[SheilaAnn]

68. Me too, especially as a child. My dad used to love going to a German owned tavern and would take me along. The bar

itself was in their house and the Mrs. would bring me pretzels and cokes at the table, while dad would have his beer and talk with his German friends. I'm sure the war was a topic of conversation since this was the late '40s. All such wonderful people.

[SheltieLover]

16. Nancy or Rachel

[RockRaven]

19. Under those terms I would volunteer to endure a 4+ hour dinner with a certain

someone who shall not be named, even though this be purely hypothetical and counterfactual.

[LeftInTX]

21. Obama

[Pisces]

23. Barrack Obama

[harumph]

24. Do I have only a few months to live? (might influence my decision)

[Boomerproud]

26. Bill Clinton.

Hillary too. I would just shut my mouth and suck in all the knowledge. They wouldn't have any memory of the evening, but I'd be writing in my diary. I would ask him some pointed questions about how he really felt how Gingrich et al treated him. Wouldn't accept bs answer.

[qazplm135]

27. Depends

Is there a trapdoor under the guest's chair?

[WarGamer]

31. OP specified "alive"... but I agree with you

[WarGamer]

30. Bill Clinton... 110%

[Brother Buzz]

32. Gary Snyder

From his 1959 book Riprap and Cold Mountain Poems

“I was very Marxist in college, but couldn’t make it with the regular Commie bunch because of my individualistic-bohemian-anarchist tendencies, all much looked down upon. Of course, being the only real member of the proletariat in the bunch of them, the others being upper middle class New York kids as a rule, they really couldn’t say much. I took anthropology—Indians—and literature at Reed and got much involved with primitive religion, mythology and primitive literature—song, ritual, dance—and at about the same time was beginning to read Far Eastern history and Chinese poetry. I was married for about six months then and my left-wing wife didn’t dig this sudden interest in Oriental philosophy and Shoshone folk tales. Out of college, I spent the summer of 1951 as a log-scaler on an Indian reservation, where I dug the Berry Feast and later made up the poem about it, and then went on a long hike in the Olympic Mountains. Up in the mountains, all the notions that had been swarming in my head crystallized and sort or hung there until the Fall of that year I picked up a copy of D. T. Suzuki, writing about Zen, and read it while hitchhiking to a graduate fellowship at Indiana in anthropology. It finished the job, and although I stayed one semester at Indiana, I was through with the academic world and headed back West in ’52 for what proved to be five years of mountain jobs, scenes in San Francisco, Chinese language study, writing poetry, and so on, until I first came to Japan. Then I was at sea on a tanker for eight months, in San Francisco and back In Japan again. I love to roam around and I like tough self-discipline, I don’t mind hard work, and being poor never bothered me. I guess that’s what makes it possible to carry on like I do. Being free don’t mean evading necessity, it means outsmarting it.”

HOW POETRY COMES TO ME
by Gary Snyder

It comes blundering over the
Boulders at night, it stays
Frightened outside the
Range of my campfire
I go to meet it at the
Edge of the light

[DBoon]

33. Paul Krugman

[Sneederbunk]

34. Weird Al Yankovic.

[Buddyzbuddy]

35. Senator Murkowski

Per her voting record, she listens to reason and is willing to change direction if she can be convinced. Being battered and threatened by the incoming new administration makes her susceptible to changing parties and maybe bring a couple of friends with her. Maybe we won't win on votes but if we can get the majority, we can stop some of the madness. The enemy of my enemy is my friend.

[chowder66]

36. Hillary Clinton

[oasis]

37. +1

[Solly Mack]

38. Bella Abzug

[fantase56]

39. George Carlin

or maybe Frank Zappa…..

[Pototan]

43. The person must be alive to answer my OP

[Lunabell]

42. The fat orange blobfather. A nice private dinner.

But, they'd better not have any sharp instruments on the table. I'm 63, not much time left on this dying planet. What have I got to lose?

[Morbius]

44. Rachel Maddow.

I'd happily skip eating and listen to her talk.

[Ex Lurker]

45. My mother

If the stipulation is we have to talk politics, okay, but I just want to see her again.

[Akacia]

47. Biden.

[arthritisR_US]

48. Timothy Snyder

[Morbius]

52. Good call.

One of the smartest liberals in the country, IMHO.

[ribrepin]

54. Timothy Snyder would be my choice

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

49. Al Franken. Or Gretchen Whitmer.

[electric_blue68]

50. Hillary, Kamala, Barack, or Lawrence

[exboyfil]

51. JD Vance

To find out whether he is wacked out or merely an opportunist. Also it might not do any good, but I would like to make my case to him.

[Emile]

53. AOC

[Walleye]

55. Joe and Jill Biden, I'm sure they would make me feel comfortable. And there's a lot of things Joe would probably like to

Say that he couldn’t as president. I’d like to hear Jill’s take on all this too.

[intrepidity]

56. Depends. What's on the menu? nt

[CTyankee]

58. Meryl Streep

I've seen almost all of her movies and I would ask her questions about how she developed her characters, her interactions with other actors, the film she had the most fulfillment from working on, her creative process.

[leftyladyfrommo]

59. Billy Connolly

[leftyladyfrommo]

63. Or Neil deGrasse Tyson. I have a crush on

him.

[The Madcap]

61. Eloon.

I would serve him Tender Vittles and Ramen while I had a nice Ribeye and a bottle of wine. He needs to see how the 99.9% live under his "presidential" policies. Plus, I have never had dinner with a raving lunatic before. Insults galore would be flying.

[berniesandersmittens]

62. Noam Chomsky

[tavernier]

64. Ryan Gosling.

No explanation.

[DFW]

65. I would choose someone I haven't yet had the pleasure of talking with, so my choice would be

Pete Buttigieg

[ratchiweenie]

66. AOC.

[Timeflyer]

69. Leon Musk--but I cook the dinner. Mushrooms are a classic.

[JustAnotherGen]

70. VP Harris

[allegorical oracle]

71. King Charles -- he's an avid environmentalist and equestrian, both of which are

interests of mine.

[JanMichael]

72. Greta Thunberg. It would be nice to talk to a young person with promise.

Laser focused too.

[Hugin]

73. I don't usually reply to threads like this...

Not because I don’t have an answer, but because I often have way too many. I’m easy to please.

This time, I do have a candidate.

Lucy Worsley

She’s the ultimate nerd of the things I like hearing about. I doubt I’d do much more than smile and nod during the dinner.

[lostnfound]

74. Nicole Wallace would be on my shortlist, and Paul Krugman, and Barack Obama.

But i don’t want to talk politics very much at all. It’s too hopeless.