Progressive Democrats aren't turning activism into election wins

[DFW]

40. I owe you a couple of clarifications, I think

I thought that $8500 was how much Jayapal raised, not Dexter. Maybe I need to go back over that.

The gathering in Washington was not specifically for Elizabeth Warren, and no one came to see her specifically. It was a celebration of the 150th anniversary of the founding of The Nation, America's oldest continuously published political magazine. It's current long-term editor, Katrina vanden Heuvel is a friend of mine. She invited me to the celebration pretty much as a courtesy, since I am NEVER in North America in September, and she knew it. Except for that one year, 2015. That one year, the daughter of some very dear friends of ours was getting married in September in Massachusetts. We said we would definitely come, and since there were only about 18 days between the end of my summer convention in (wherever it was that year) and the wedding, we decided not to go back to Europe for the short time. Instead, we booked a trip to Alaska round trip from Washington, DC, and left our summer stuff at my brother's house in Langley. We had three days between Alaska and Western Mass. and one of them was the date of Katrina's celebration in DC. She was amazed (and flatteringly excited) when I said I could make it. I only found out that Elizabeth Warren might be coming when I got there. Never having met her, I was interested to hear what she would have to say. Although I was standing about four feet from her, I have still never met her. She positioned herself under the spotlight, waited for the room to quiet, gave her speech, turned around, and hastily disappeared out the back entrance. Considering the intense concentration of Democratic prominence in that room, I was shocked, and I was not the only one. Later on, when she announced she was running for president, I thought to myself, "either she has vastly improved her people skills, or her candidacy will fizzle very quickly." It fizzled.

He mea iki, Cha !