How I Got Norman Lear to Laugh

At the Gala Awards dinner, honoree Norman Lear, founder of People for the American Way, developer of the TV shows All In the Family (Archie Bunker) Maude, Good Times, The Jeffersons... the list is WAAY too long. Click on his name for the link to IMDB to see what a life he's had. When finished his acceptance talk, he walked away from the microphone, then came back and announced, "I've had to pee for the past hour," and rushed off the stage. There was a break in the program while the waiter staff started bringing out the main course, and I took a cue from Mr. Lear. As I approached the men's room there were a lot of men going in and inside, it was packed. There was Mr. Lear at the sink, washing his hands. "You've inspired us all, Mr. Lear," I quipped to him. At first he thought I was talking about his words of wisdom, but my gesture to all the men in the men's room made it clear I was referring to his parting remark. I got a laugh out of one of the kings of laughs.

A lot of the reason I go to Take Back America is to make connections and solidify relationships already made.

I did an interview with Mike Gravel and it looks like he'll be posting regularly to OEN. Ends up a friend of his, who helps him, and who was accompanying him to the conference is an OEN regular reader and occasional poster. He's scheduled to be a guest on my radio show tonight, at around 8:00 PM. (AM 1360 Straight Call Kall with Jim Strait and Rob Kall)

I met Jack Layton, head of Canada's left wing party, and a member of Canada's Parliament, and will be interviewing him.

Phil Donahue and Jim Dean at
Take Back America

I spent some time re-connecting and chatting with Jim Dean of DFA, John Podesta (Clinton's chief of staff and head of Center for American Progress, Arianna Huffington, Bob Borosage, Campaign for America's Future, Mark Green, Jon Elliot, Cenk Uygur and Richard Greene of Air America Radio, Medea Benjamin of Code Pink, radio hosts Mark Levine, Peter B. Collins and Guy James, ...folks from Alternet, Commondreams, thenation, YES magazine, MotherJones, uberbloggers Matt Stoller and Chris Bowers of openleft.com, Bob Fertik of democrats.com, David Swanson of afterdowningstreet, David Sirota, Cliff Schecter, Gloria Totten head of Progressive Majority, and a lot more interesting people.

I met Jane Hamsher and Christy Hardin Smith of Firedog Lake, and Donna Edwards, who recently beat conservative democrat Al Wynn in the democratic congressional primary in her Maryland district. I'll be interviewing her about how progressives can defeat DINO incumbents.

I gave out cards and pitched OEN to Norman Lear, Phil Donahue, some union heads,... you know-- threw a lot of stuff against the wall. We'll see what sticks.

A poll of close to 500 attendees found that over Obama pulled over 70% to Hillary's 17%.

I also connected with a lot of other potential new writers and informed many other publishers and bloggers about the site.

ON the final day of the conference, Norman Lear spoke on Reflections on God and Country, from the left.

You can see a LOT of the talks one the website for Campaign for America's Future

www.ourfuture.org/multimedia

One more thing-- remember-- I said I'd save the best for last.

After he spoke at the Gala Dinner, I had a chance to chat with Bill Moyers. I first met him a few months after I started OpEdnews, when our circulation was under 50,000 readers a month. I mentioned it to him, that now we are up past 600,000 and he replied that OEN is on his FAVORITES LIST. How cool is that?

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