The IOPL/John Locke web/politics event yesterday in RTP went well. Lots of good conversation on the panels, and with the crowd (I enjoyed catching up with attendee Vernon Robinson, who is a real student of web organizing tactics; he's a much different guy in person than his outrageous political stunts might suggest).
I guess the crowd skewed somewhat conservative, given the role of the JLF (I never quite grasped the essence of the Hillary-bashing question lobbed at our blogging panel; one intense women told me afterwards that my characterization of Hillary as a moderate Democrat was wrong, she had some books that reveal the truth -- it was probably unprofessional of me to say "Other than all those people she killed in Arkansas, what are you talking about?") but it really worked as an informational event that included discussions of politics by people with strong points of views, yet never devolved into political argument. Thanks to Robin Dorff and John Hood and their teams for organizing it, and for inviting me to participate.
I thought the panels were very well balanced and useful. The crowd was made up of a lot of folks who were alumni fellows from Walt DeVries days at the Institute of Political Leadership (there was an alumni reunion in conjunction with the event). Much of the rest were JLF types. I ran into two old friends from Chapel Hill, one I had not seen since 1973, one I had seen only once since 1972. Two state legislators were there (Bill Daughtridge and Joe Sam Queen), also former Wake County Commissioner Jack Nichols. I'd say the total crowd was about 100.
Posted by: Gerry Cohen | Sep 09, 2007 at 05:58 PM
Congratulations on on the peaceful meting with the C.A.
Nice guy , huh , Ed ?
Posted by: Fred Gregory | Sep 12, 2007 at 01:22 AM