But last night it was Grams and Oberstar who didn’t get to my debate. I drove for two hours through a late October rainstorm south to Milaca where the Chamber of Commerce had scheduled a candidates forum. Oberstar and Grams were no shows but Jim at least had sent long winded answers to the three questions the Chamber had sent him in advance.
I introduced myself by explaining that my funding was a couple decimal points short of Oberstar’s and that I had to do things myself. Then I held out my camera and took a picture of myself on the stage. It drew a couple chuckles. The flash didn’t go off but with a little futzing on the computer it turned into a reasonable facsimile of the candidate.
I told the fifty or so folks that my name was Harry; that I’d been born in the most Republican state in the union, Kansas, smack dab in the middle the Democrat Harry Truman’s presidency. I explained that my parents had a lot of explaining to do. That drew another round of chuckles.
I’m not sure the crowd was there for the Congressional candidates. Mercifully, I was first and got to leave immediately afterward for the long drive home.
