Sat 8 Oct 2005
More on tonight’s Warren County Democratic Party Dinner With The Candidates later. I’m too tired to write much. Let’s just say that after talking with Hackett and his posse that I’m feeling much better. Paul does a dead on Chuck Schumer but I think his Dean needs a little work.
The big highlight for me of the very successful event were the chants by the overflow crowd of CHANDRA! CHANDRA! after Ohio AG candidate Subodh Chandra’s speech. If you get a chance to see him speak, go watch him.
7 Responses to “CHANDRA! CHANDRA!”
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October 9th, 2005 at 12:03 am
I have video of Sabodh speaking at the Stark County Democratic dinner a few weeks ago.
http://www.growohio.org/story/2005/9/27/126/30233
I probably left that night feeling quite the same way you do about him right now.
Tim
October 9th, 2005 at 12:58 pm
I was at the dinner last night, but I never heard the crowd chant “CHANDRA! CHANDRA!” after his speech. He did get an enthusastic response, for sure, but the crowd didn’t chant his name. If they did, you couldn’t hear at the bar.
October 9th, 2005 at 1:02 pm
It was by people in the back. There was a lot of applause at the time.
October 9th, 2005 at 1:22 pm
Ah, well the impression created by the post was that the overflow crowd said that. Like I said earlier, I don’t think it matters either way because he did receive an enthusastic response from the entire crowd.
Maybe it’s just me, but I did feel a little uncomfortable at one point because I felt when Chandra was talking about other candidates who at this “late” juncture were considering getting in the race, he was kind of slamming Hackett. I didn’t ask if anyone else got that impression, but I felt he really was trying to not-so-subtlely make the case against Hackett running for AG.
The fact that Paul seemed to respond to that in his comments about the AG’s race seemed to confirm that. Did you get that impression??
October 9th, 2005 at 1:29 pm
Interesting perception. I so did not get that sense. I felt that Chandra’s comments were slamming the other potential Attorney General candidates for not deciding fast enough- not Hackett, who has never been, at least in my mind, a serious A.G. candidate.
October 9th, 2005 at 2:17 pm
Chandra wasn’t talking about Hackett, but other politicians who are now thinking about running for the AG spot. When I’ve asked him about other state wide races he hasn’t expressed any interest.
October 9th, 2005 at 2:28 pm
Hi, y’all. Stop talking about me behind my back!
Seriously, I appreciate the comments. Just to clear up any potential misunderstanding, when I urged the audience to examine the legal and prosecutorial qualifications of anyone else who gets in the race, I was not referring to Paul Hackett, whom I admire greatly as a model citizen-statesman. I gathered from Paul’s kind remarks about me at the event that he never seriously considered the A.G.’s race–others urged it upon him. Paul seems to be the kind of fellow who, like me, doesn’t want or need to “BE SOMEBODY,” have a fancy title, or pad his resume. As a father and professional, he’s comfortable enough with himself that he doesn’t need it. He’s got other things he can and should be doing with his life–like earning a living and being with his wife and young children.
Like me, he’s drawn to public service (despite those competing needs) because he thinks this country and state are in deep trouble–and we are confronted by the moral imperative to help.
In my remarks, I was referring to other potential opponents who have had their fingers to the wind. I expect at least one to get in whom I like personally and professionally, and who has a record of good, interesting, headline-making, arm-chair quarterbacking talk–but no record of action and concrete results as a prosecutor.
I only raised the issue in my remarks because voters and activists sometimes have a habit of going with “names they know” rather than thinking about who is best for the particular job. Businesses that do that fail, but in politics we put up with it for reasons utterly beyond me. The musical-chairs mentality–people who run for office for the sake of moving up and being officeholders–is what’s gotten us into trouble in the first place in Ohio. See, e.g., Betty Montgomery and Jim Petro.
As Ann Driscoll said recently on her blog, “Right circumstances must meet the right candidate to seize this opportunity in Ohio.” The question for me, and I assume for Paul, was and is “am I the best person to serve in a particular capacity at this particular moment in Ohio’s history” If not, fine. Let someone else do it. Running for statewide office is a fundamentally irrational act if you have a family and need to earn a living.
I got in because I had finally had enough and it was time for me, because of the unique corruption-cleansing background and skills that I have to offer at this moment of need, to get off the sidelines and take my state and country back. I’m running to end the culture of corruption and cronyism, not to substitute our corruption and croynism for their corruption and cronyism. It means I need fundraising help from the true idealists like you.
Anyway, I enjoyed the Warren County Democratic Party dinner immensely. It was nice to walk into a room expecting about 20 Democrats and to see at least 100 or more. Another example of the danger of stereotyping. Warren County rocks.
SC
P.S. BTW, I did not personally hear “Chandra, Chandra!” from the back. I thought they were yelling, “Yammer, Yammer!” which is why I stopped speaking.