Meeting Jim Hunt
December 15, 2010 - by
Twenty-six years ago after the fourth Helms-Hunt debate I walked up onto the back of the stage and stood waiting for Jesse – as he talked to reporters – and suddenly the crowd shifted and I found myself standing face to face with Jim Hunt in the flesh – for the first time.
To say there wasn’t any good will between the Hunt folks and Helms folks in October of 1984 is an understatement – we’d been going at it hammer and tongs making the political equivalent of nuclear war on each other for over a year; so as I faced Hunt there was a moments ‘awkward pause’ where all I could manage to do was nod and mumble a dead-pan, “Governor,” trying to at least sound polite but not really succeeding.
Then Hunt stuck out his hand, half-smiled, and said, “Well, at least no one can say we sat it out in our Ivory Towers.”
Then the crowd shifted again and he was gone.
For the last four years Gary’s been working on a biography of Jim Hunt and the other day he came by the office and gave me a copy for Christmas. It’s a riveting story – a rare look at three decades of Democratic politics from behind the curtain and I read it straight through in three sittings.
As Gary was leaving he said, You might want to look at the inscription.
I opened the title page and there were two inscriptions. One was a personal note from Gary. And the other was a note from North Carolina’s ‘Governor for Life’ and Jesse Helms’ nemesis Jim Hunt. He’d written:
“At least we didn’t sit it out in our Ivory Towers – did we?”
Meeting Jim Hunt
December 15, 2010/
Twenty-six years ago after the fourth Helms-Hunt debate I walked up onto the back of the stage and stood waiting for Jesse – as he talked to reporters – and suddenly the crowd shifted and I found myself standing face to face with Jim Hunt in the flesh – for the first time.
To say there wasn’t any good will between the Hunt folks and Helms folks in October of 1984 is an understatement – we’d been going at it hammer and tongs making the political equivalent of nuclear war on each other for over a year; so as I faced Hunt there was a moments ‘awkward pause’ where all I could manage to do was nod and mumble a dead-pan, “Governor,” trying to at least sound polite but not really succeeding.
Then Hunt stuck out his hand, half-smiled, and said, “Well, at least no one can say we sat it out in our Ivory Towers.”
Then the crowd shifted again and he was gone.
For the last four years Gary’s been working on a biography of Jim Hunt and the other day he came by the office and gave me a copy for Christmas. It’s a riveting story – a rare look at three decades of Democratic politics from behind the curtain and I read it straight through in three sittings.
As Gary was leaving he said, You might want to look at the inscription.
I opened the title page and there were two inscriptions. One was a personal note from Gary. And the other was a note from North Carolina’s ‘Governor for Life’ and Jesse Helms’ nemesis Jim Hunt. He’d written:
“At least we didn’t sit it out in our Ivory Towers – did we?”