The PiC and I attended the Hugh Hewitt - Peter Beinart debate last night. He was visibly bummed when I told him the subject of the debate was the future of the Democratic Party, commenting something to the effect of, "I don't remember the Democrats worrying about the future of the Republican party before Newt helped us take back the House." True that.
Of course the crowd was not at all interested in the Democrats regaining power. In fact, one of the biggest rounds of applause was when Beinart mentioned they didn't currently hold power over any branch of government.
You do have to give Beinart credit for braving a crowd almost totally in opposition to his viewpoint. He is passionate about his beliefs however wrong they may be. We stopped after the show and thanked him. One attendee asked him to sign her copy of Coulter's How to Talk to a Liberal. Peter refused because Ann said you can't be a liberal and love your country. He did however agree to sign a copy of Hugh's book, Blog.
Speaking of Blog, everyone in the audience that placed a ticket order over $69 I think, got a free copy of Hugh's book. I had him sign mine, of course, and the ever gracious, ever generous Mr. Hewitt remembered from previous meetings that I had a blog without me mentioning it. He admonished me to "get to it" when I told him I'd let it slide for a while, so I guess I have my marching orders.
The NARN guys finished off the last two hours of Hugh's radio show. no small task considering there was a roomful of people chatting in the background. The Minnesota Organization of Bloggers was well represented in the crowd. If you want more info on the content of the debate, Doug live-blogged it.
Update: Did I say I was done? Just wanted to mention it was a pleasure to meet Steve's lovely wife, MLW.
We didn't get to visit enough. But it was great to see you. I was battling technical and drink-surpressing demons far too often.
Posted by: Doug | February 12, 2005 at 12:50 AM