More Video, More Questions

We have another video up on YouTube, this time an excerpt from my chat with the University of Delaware College Democrats. You can see it below. And once again, I feel the need to pre-emptively answer some questions about the video:

1. Why is the camera shaking like the videographer had hit the Deer Park for a few hours before the meeting?
We basically don’t know how to use the camera yet. The history of the camera is as follows. One day, someone mentioned to me that any self-respecting campaign in the 21st century has to have candid videos on the web, and by the way where was our YouTube page. I then told the campaign team that if we didn’t have a cheap digital video camera in the next 15 minutes the entire campaign might collapse. A SWAT team was dispatched to get the camera, in order to keep my blood pressure within medically acceptable limits. The camera arrived. We all stood around looking at it like the cavemen in Quest for Fire looking at, well, fire. It didn’t do anything. Then we realized that we must use the camera. We are now in the process of learning how to do so. Finally, it is possible that the videographer (who will remain anonymous) was at the Deer Park before the meeting.

2. Why do you keep talking during the video about how old you feel?
Well first of all, our sadistic video editor has managed to capture the five minutes of video that contain almost all of the “I am so old” references contained in my 15 minutes of remarks. But beyond that, one of the things that had happened before I spoke was that the College Dems were supposed to name their favorite bands. Now, I try to stay somewhat hip. I watched the MTV video music awards (yes, my retinas are still burning). I listen to popular music stations in the car, if only as an alternative to making fund-raising calls. But I had never heard of one band that these college students were talking about. They were names like “Screams from the Deep Buried Grave” and “Belligerent Popeye Head.” (I am making up these names, but I think they have some potential.) Hence, I felt old.

3. Did you ever get to meet Mario Cuomo or John Lewis, the people you talk about on the video?
Yes. I saw Mario Cuomo when he came to Delaware in the early 1990s to speak at an event. When the event was over I walked up to him and began prattling about how he had influenced my life. He was hustled away by security (this was back when he was presumed to be a presidential candidate). I got a chance to meet John Lewis at a conference, also I think in the early 1990s. He was exactly the way you would expect him to be: extraordinarily statesmanlike, very gracious with his time, and with a stunning historical perspective on the last 40 years that you could only gain from having personally created much of the history.