One debate, two famous Larrys
I went to the Democratic presidential debate Thursday night at USC. I was one of the few lucky students to get a seat, since I’m in a politics class this semester. Larry King was the moderator. Before the broadcast began he came out to introduce the candidates to the audience. The candidates weren’t quite ready, so Larry stretched by cracking jokes (“Is Kucinich in the bathroom?”) and pretending to be mad at the floor director (“Don’t say ‘one more minute’ or I’ll kill you.”).
Among the students and faculty and Democratic elite (ex-guv Gray Davis, for example) in the audience, I saw another famous Larry: Larry Flynt, in his gold wheelchair. This was particularly funny to me, since I’d just passed the Hustler publisher and recent gubernatorial candidate two days earlier in the hall at Annenberg. Should I be concerned that I am suddenly moving in the same circles as Larry Flynt?
The actual debate went off without incident, and the candidates all got a chance to get in a good line or two. (Al Sharpton on gay marriage: “The issue is not who you go to bed with. The issue is whether you have a job when you get up in the morning.”)