Omygosh squealing fangirl time... Yesterday my friend Kat and I went to Cleveland to "Inside the Political Studio" at the Ohio Theatre, in Playhouse Square. It was a fundraiser for Dennis Kucinich, Representative to Congress from Ohio's 10th district. Yes,the same guy who ran for President earlier this year. I'm a huge Eddie fan, but was not so huge a Dennis fan, until yesterday when I heard him answer questions from Eddie and from the audience. I didn't necessarily dislike DK, just didn't know much about him and all you tended to hear was the kooky stuff about seeing UFOs or something. The guy is very smart and has excellent ideas. So I was very happy to contribute to his campaign, especially since it got me in to see Eddie and to meet both of them afterward! The Q&A was in the theater, we sat in the third row, cool! And then those of us who paid extra for the VIP ticket walked into another part of the complex to Sammy's restaurant for a fantastic buffet meal and some one-on-one time with them both. We sat at round tables and both Eddie and DK made the rounds separately, stopping at each table for five or more minutes to answer our questions and stuff. I bought Dennis' autobiography to have him sign, and I'm looking forward to reading it because it sounds like he had quite a fascinating life growing up.



Dennis' gorgeous redhaired British wife Elizabeth stopped by our table first, then Dennis, and then there was a break while the two of them posed for professional photos with any attendee who wanted to pay extra for one, before they did the rounds of the other tables. Of course I got a photo with them--I'll scan it later when I get to the scanner and post it. Very very exciting! They were great fun and also really patient with everyone. When I walked up to stand between them for the photo, I accidentally moved the black paper that was on the floor in front of us for our "mark." Eddie put it back and Dennis told me, "Aristides once said, if you show me where to stand, I can change the world, so now you can too" or something close to that. I thought that was a really sweet thing to say! Okay, a very politician-y thing to say, but still. He could tell I was nervous, which was dumb on my part but can't be helped. To Eddie at the photo shoot I just said "You're awesome!". Good grief. But we had a nice conversation at our table when Eddie finally made it there, talked about Gordon Brown and British politics a little, how they call for elections any time they want, not set in stone every four years like ours, etc. He told us that he's working on raising money for a film version of The Riches: very cool news! Loved that show. He is just so generous and funny and smart and what a cool guy to organize this for his friend Dennis. Dennis had come to his standup show earlier in the year, and they hung out some together, they've met in Cleveland for things, and Eddie wanted to help him out in the election. The stage event was very cool; when we were first there, waiting for it to begin, suddenly over the PA system we heard Eddie's voice saying it would start in a few moments, they were just getting things settled, and he added a couple of funny remarks along that vein. Everyone tittered when they recognized the voice, and one woman was heard to exclaim "well that was worth the money right there!" He kept things moving along very well, he was a good interviewer. He had his own questions but also pulled a few from the box of contributions we wrote beforehand, almost like an improv thing. He threw out some weird ones and stuck to relevant political stuff, except for the question "what do each of you like best about the other?" which was a great question and gave them a lot to talk about. Dennis gave some long answers but he was explaining foreign policy or economic policy and so forth, and he didn't ramble much, he was on point and very clear. It was quite interesting, and he got a lot of applause for various points he made that we agreed with. There was a little knocking of the current administration but mostly he talked about why he ran, why he wants to stay in the Congress to do good things and not switch over to run for Senate as Eddie thought maybe he should do in order to get more clout for a future run at national office. He actually didn't talk much at all about specifics he would work on to help Cleveland and the local area, but that's kind of a given I guess. His focus is on the bigger picture to help everyone in the country, especially with health care and getting out of Iraq, etc. Kat and I met a very nice woman while standing in line, who happened to be there by herself too and who's from Stow! Very small world--considering that the 6 folks at our dinner table later were all from other states; some attend college here but others drove here from West Virginia or D.C. or even flew from California just for the opportunity to meet Eddie. (We didn't happen to meet any who were there solely to meet Dennis, it was mostly Eddie fans who happen to share Dennis' political views too.) My one regret is not getting Eddie's live autograph, I was going to have him sign my photograph at the table but when he sat down I suddenly didn't want to bug him, I wanted to get right into talking and he was getting enough stuff shoved at him for signings as it was. I bought a presigned photo of the two of them, though, so that was cool enough. I don't know what else to say about this now, I already can't remember details of what they said, unfortunately, but it was just a ton of fun overall. I felt like a political bigwig, never been to a fundraiser like this before. Especially since I can't even vote for Dennis, sadly, because I don't live in his district. But I wish him the best of luck in the election tomorrow. And Eddie, well, sigh....I'd go see him read a telephone book if the opportunity arose, he's wonderful.

Oh, and one other teeny tiny regret? That by going to this event Kat and I missed going to the huge 80,000 person outdoor rally for Barack Obama that was going on at the same time just blocks away!!! With Bruce Springsteen and Barack's family and everything! grrrr....would have loved to see him in person. But there we would have been just one tiny speck in the crowd; this was way more fun. Plus we didn't get rained on, as the Obama people did. Still, timing stinks...