Interviewing the Candidates

Through a mixture of effort and good luck, I have ended up interviewing three of the major candidates this year (Giuiliani, McCain, Thompson) with possibly more to come. Some people have asked me what I thought of them personally.

I don’t have much to say about that, since the amount of social time around these interviews would total up to about ten minutes. These men are clearly scheduled down to the second. During the most recent interviews (McCain, Giuliani) I was being signaled constantly by their handlers off camera to wrap it up. The PJM WoT interviews, which are in depth and run over fifteen minutes, are not exactly what the candidates (or their handlers) are used to doing. The candidates love it – and have told me so – the handlers less so, although some have told me later that they also liked them.

But back for a second to the personalities of the candidates. I was impressed with all of them as men and politicians. They all seemed informed and, as I noted, enjoyed what they were doing, which makes it fun for the interviewer. Regarding Thompson, I am puzzled by the lack of voter support. I saw no evidence of the laziness charge and he appeared a prepared and knowledgeable candidate. Perhaps this is a media myth that has been adopted by the public.

We are also interested in your comments about the high definition format. To our knowledge, no one else is doing high def political content on the Internet (certainly many will the near future). We’re trying to get this right. Let us know your reactions either here our on the Pajamas posts.