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Aboard Reich's Reform Express
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Race
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| Contributor | Craverguy |
| Last Edited | Craverguy Apr 23, 2009 01:50am |
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| Category | Profile |
| News Date | Thursday, August 1, 2002 06:00:00 AM UTC0:0 |
| Description | The "Reich Reform Express," mothership of what local observers refer to as Robert Reich's "we try harder" campaign for governor, is on a rocky maiden voyage into the backwaters of Massachusetts. The Argosy motor home looks great with its new blue paint job and "Here Comes Bob" logo. But inside the rolling tin can, all is not well. Halfway to Haverhill on a 96-degree day, the air-conditioning system shorts out. Frantic aides make urgent cell phone calls for technical assistance as pieces of the vehicle itself--removed in vain hopes of finding a fuse box--pile up in the sink. The temperature, and tensions, are rising. Except in the swivel chair where the former US Labor Secretary is seated. The small mobile policy unit of American politics is more interested in repairing civil society than his campaign's aging motor home.
"We have to find a new, positive nationalism, which entails offering citizens a wider circle of opportunity to get involved, strengthening democracy, making a deeper commitment to civil liberties and civil rights," says Reich, as he and an aide scramble to catch a bottle of water that has just slid off a counter. Not missing a beat, the candidate continues, "It's really about a harkening back to a time when progressives said that, Yes, Massachusetts can be a model for America, and America really can be a beacon for the world."
Part "Happy Warrior," part professor on the ultimate sabbatical (after quitting the Clinton Cabinet in 1997 he took up a faculty post at Brandeis University), Reich is absolutely certain that it matters to make this point, even as sweat smoothes away the last creases in a once-crisp Oxford shirt. "I try my best to suppress my policy wonk instincts, but I don't always succeed," he admits, with a knowing laugh at the stereotype he so ably fills. "I used to really worry about it. Then I started to understand that this is why I'm running--to talk about big issues, get a dialogue going, maybe change the world." |
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