This is Lenny again. Glad that Richard got a chance to say hello to The Root Family out there.
I didn’t get a chance to see all of Rudy’s speech. What I did see, though, was everything I expected, including and especially his performance as “attack dog.”
I mean, c’mon – he’s a New York attorney, so this should NOT be a surprise to anyone.
It’s funny, though, when I hear about how mean the Republicans have been during these speeches so far this evening. Both sides do this. It just seems bad when the Republicans do it.
That, honestly, I blame more on Republicans than on anyone else. If we did a better job of branding and outreach, it wouldn’t be as much of a problem. Because we don’t, we constantly face “us vs. them” situations every year in elections, despite what GOP candidates actually bring to the table.
I just got back from Fox News again. This is the second time that I have been on the set since yesterday. I was a guest on the Fox News webcast with Griff Jenkins for a 15-minute segment Tuesday afternoon. I got a call later asking if I would be willing to come on with Shepard Smith for another segment, this time in prime time.
It’s been a busy day all around for all of us. Claudio has been interviewed by Canadian radio (the CBC) and AOL Black Voice. I ended up providing TV commentary for CNN International this afternoon before doing a 30-minute interview with Howard University’s WHUR.
I have been called everything from an Uncle Tom to a “Carlton-a** nig***...and from “refreshing and intelligent” to “principled.” Not exclusively from the WHUR show, mind you – I was actually treated well on the show aside from one caller that didn’t want to debate but wanted to blast me – but from others, mostly outside of this complex and those that know the Republicanism about me but not much of anything else. You know - the protesters outside, some of the radio callers.
It’s ironic. Those that have interviewed us see that we are a little deeper than the caricatures applied to us. Truly, though, I’ve come to realize that it doesn’t matter and it doesn’t bother me. If people that came before me got bitten by police dogs and attacked with water hoses and police batons (among a LOT worse fates) for this right to speak my positions in a respectful manner, I can withstand a little name-calling. I’m not as great as those people were, but this is the 2008 RNC Convention and we are here, contributing. It only happened because those before us “happened.”
Now, I get over to the Fox News compound (seriously – it looked like a smaller version of a Home Depot, just with a bunch of laptops, cameras, and others items for their broadcasts everywhere.) I talk to the booking agent and ask her how long this segment would be, expecting no more than 5 minutes or so.
Ends up that I “co-hosted” the 9 pm EST hour with Shepard Smith. We got good feedback from call-in e-mails. They liked the debate and conversations that we had over the hour.
That’s cool for me. It made a difference that a young, Black man that is conservative yet moderate had a chance to be a voice in the political mix during one of the biggest days of the 2008 presidential political cycle. It made a difference because while I was up there, I realized that I represented a lot of people, not just me and not just conservatives. It was enough to make me tumble over my first sentence or so, although I settled in pretty quickly. I know that there are not a lot of young, Black people here, so what I do – and what HHR does here this week – can change perception about us within conservative circles and beyond.
Now that I think about it, I wish that my mother was still around to see this, but I’m sure that she’s watching from a better seat.
