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| may 3 - 9 |
| brainy, hairy, underaverage sized |
| hi: 82 |
| lo: 54 |
An interview with Paul Charney About Working for the Kerry (Or Is It Kerrey?) Campaign,
Contributed by JCW, May 2004
paul charney--k.m.l. founder and exec producer--long ago, back in his undergrad days, volunteered for the kerry campaign in 1992. below, he reflects on his experience in the political theater, prodded by interviewer jon wolanske.
what did you do for the kerry campaign?
i stood outside the student post office put up annoying flyers in lounges--
annoying how?
i would put them over the clinton ones. the tsongas people would put them over the kerry ones--
the john kerry ones?
bob kerry. i don't think john kerry ran.
what else?
i would call people to let them know there was a meeting.
like a rally?
a meeting. so lame.
what would you talk about?
where we would poster. and someone would talk to the kerry headquarters in iowa once in a while.
you only had to poster on campus?
yeah. we had meetings. we'd talk about politics we'd try to bring new people--it was just stupid.
were there a lot of misinformed people in the group?
what? oh i'm sure i was one of them. i mean, i was a freshman. the meetings were just stupid. we just talked about where to poster.
how did you decide?
we were just like -- 'ah no one goes over there.' where's the next meeting gonna be? peterutti (lounge)? yeah.
how long did this go on for?
this was just a month. no that's not true. six weeks?
so he didn't even make it to the primary?
no, he was in the primaries -- he just didn't make it to the rhode island primary?
wait--a lot of the students at brown were not from rhode island... didn't they vote absentee--for the other state primaries?
a lot of those kids had never registered out ofd state--most did at brown. at least all the freshman--who were new to voting.
how many groups did you poster against?
there was us working for kerry -- then the college democrats, who worked for the party. they were helping to organize all the people from the various candidates efforts. then they jumped on the clinton campaign which was just annoying -- one of those things where we realized we are just working and no on is ever going to vote for kerry. even though he had easily the best education platform.
so who you gonna vote for in this election?
kerry. i think.
bob kerry?
john kerry.
why did you say 'kerry--i think'?
cause...
you're gonna vote for nader, aren't you.
i might! I hate him!!!! cause he fucked the last election. but i saw the bill maher show a few weeks ago... and he was talling about how we're all working for corporate america and i was like--fuck you!!! you make sense. but you fucked it up last time. you are the only one who makes sense!!! and i hate that.
how many hours a week did you volunteer for kerry?
3 or 4.
what days?
i don't remember.(pause)
i don't remember much of what i did. it was over 10 years ago.
do you have anything leftover from the campaign?
no, i kept nothing. my parents probably have it. in storage or something. no... in our basement in east hampton i have a lot of college shit there. i am sure i have the kerry thing somewhere.
are bob kerry and john kerry related?
no.
how do you know?
they don't spell it the same way.
yes they do.
no, i don't think they do. i think there's a "-E-Y."
who?
i think for bob.
i don't think so.
yeah i don't know. i may be wrong. look it up online.
[Editors Note: I did--it produced the same number of incorrectly spelled versions -- 'kerry' -- as correctly spelled version -- 'kerrey' -- for bob on the first results page. paul was correct.]
they spell it the same way.
the one from iowa?
yeah. are the kerrys' campaign schwag designs the same, relatively? are (john) kerry's signs like (bob) kerry's signs?
i haven't seen jk's stuff. i remember a lot of yellow in bk's stuff. maybe that's because we chose to copy on a lot of gold paper at kinko's. we had a lot of meetings in peturutti lounge.
peaberry's was a good place to put them.
peaberry's coffee? where au bon pain is now?
no -- peaberry's was across the street.
did bob kerry visit providence?
he visited boston. cause the primary -- he needed to focus on massachusetts.
did you see him?
no, i didn't.
why?
cause i had a midterm.
how did you do?
it was in --oh god--history 2--professor berghann. i got like a b- or something.
so knowing that you got a 'b-' midterm in the thing--would you have gone to see kerry instead?
probably yeah. i would have gone.
do you remember anything from the midterm?
it was history 2 so it must have been some european post... musta been 1800s or 1700s.
is that a no?
i don't remember specifically... so no.. so yes, i wish i had gone to see bob kerry. there was a hot girl who worked on the campaign. i can't remember her name... she was one of those freshman who looked good in the facebook and looked good in person.
what does that mean?
it means there are very few of those.
do you still have the facebook?
no. i don't know where it is. daniel (lee) has it.
daniel has yours?
no, we had the same facebook. my own copy might be in east hampton as well. that's where all my junk is.
what's bob kerrey doing now?
i don't know. what is he doing?
you mean you don't know?
no.
(suspicious look given from the interviewer)
what?!?!? do you know what paul tsongas is doing???
he's dead.
really?
are you serious? yes, he died of cancer.
yes... i didn't know.
bob kerrey is now the president of the new school university. new school university is where the bravo series inside the actor's studio is filmed. paul charney watches inside the actor's studio almost every week--now aware that his one time candidate is president -- if not of the united states -- then at least of somewhere that he's familiar with. |
