(With the) Governor For a Day...

I can tell this story on myself, I hope?

Years ago, when I worked at the Washington Bureau of the Wall Street Journal (I was 16, I swear!), I was one of the political reporters there. My boss was kind enough to send me to New York to do a major profile of then Gov. Mario Cuomo, who was running for a third term. I say "kind enough" because my family is from New York and he knew that I would try to squeeze in some family time. Which I am sure I did do.

Anyway, I trucked on up to Albany and the Governor let me tag along with him for his appointments...the usual thing. There was a ride in the state helicopter, too, because he had to get to some event in Manhattan, so I was invited along. I thought this very cool because it meant I had something like an hour to talk to him uninterrupted...that is, I thought it was cool until I realized the hum of the engine made it impossible to use my tape recorder, because it picked up all the ambient noise and buried the sound of his voice. So there was to do but start taking notes, which was fine except that I was also trying to maintain eye contact (which any polite person would try to do in a conversation.) So I'm looking up, looking down. Looking up, looking down. On a helicopter. Do you know where I'm going with this? It was all of 15 minutes before I realized that I was about to throw up.

And (as I reminded him yesterday when we talked for today's show) he was VERY nice about it...even poured me a glass of New York's finest ginger ale. The interview was a total bust. But...I got my first and last ride in the state helicopter, some ginger ale, and a story to tell everybody about.

That's not the reason we wanted to talk to him yesterday, really...

We wanted to talk to the former Governor because we've been talking a lot about crime this week, and I remembered that he was the head of the New York state government during the crack epidemic. He used to brag, I thought, about how many prison cells he had built during his tenure, so I wanted to ask him what message leaders should be sending about crime now. Well, he didn't remember it as bragging, as I found out.

This was a Wisdom Watch conversation, where we talk to folks who are no longer actively in positions of responsibility or authority, but who might still have something interesting to say.

Who else would you like to hear from? Anybody have Billy Graham's cell phone number?

Anyway, the former Governor also gave us another story idea, which we are working on for today's show...about the presidential debates. He thinks the debates, so far, are a waste of time...superficial.

So today, we're debating the debates...

Let us know what you think...curious if you've watched any of them.

Michel Martin

8:18 AM ET | 06- 7-2007 | permalink

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8:18 AM ET | 06- 7-2007 | permalink