Who was the most influential person who helped shape your politics to this day?

[frazzled]

23. You are a good son!

I say that because I depend sometimes on my son to walk me through technical malfunctions by phone and restore my hardware to full working order. My appreciation for sons (and daughters) who do this is immense!

Also because I, too, must probably credit my mother as my political mentor. She was not an activist like yours, but I think she shaped our views enormously. I remember so clearly her undying admiration for Adlai Stevenson, watching the Democratic conventions together when I was very young on our primitive black-and-white television as a kid, with John Chancellor working the floor, her admiration for Martin Luther King and the Kennedys. I remember how she used to volunteer at a clinic in a predominantly African-American neighborhood, helping mothers with their sick babies. These things formed my world-view from a very young age, and the example of her kindness to others was a model. Although we differed over the years in details, it doesn't really matter. It's the way she's lived her life that has been an example to live up to.