What have you taken from some of the people you've seen run for governor? You've worked closely — I believe that you played Ted Kennedy in debate prep for Mitt Romney?
I did.
Who else have you played in debate prep?
Scott Harshbarger. Who else have I played? [Former state Republican Party chair] John Brockelman played John Kerry.
I was going to ask about Kerry. You're tall enough.
I know, but Brockelman was really, really good.
Well, you've been very close to campaigns, you've been able to see very good candidates at work. Is there anything you've taken from them as a campaigner, that you've tried to use?
I guess I would say that it's an interesting question. I think the biggest learning experience for me was probably more from not so much those campaigns — because I was pretty much in a policy role in most of those races. I did some campaigning when I was campaigning last year with Scott Brown, and the big thing I learned from watching Scott campaign was this shake every hand, meet every person, maximize your time. And like I said that took me a while to get better at.
I'm working on this article for next week, and I think one of my entry points into it is you going from this guy who's thought about running for governor for a long time, thought about being governor for a long time, had people talking to you about being governor for a long time, to being in this campaign process which is a whole different thing. And how you've had to do it, and how you've had to deal with how people might look at you, positively or negatively, what they demand of you. So that's what I'm trying to get at, is how it's been for you making that adjustment.
Like I said, I think I've gotten better at it as I've gone, but, I'm the old dog that's trying to learn new tricks. But I will say this, David — I'm glad I waited, my kids are older now, and it's a much less difficult process for my family and for my wife than it would have been if I had done it earlier. That's for sure.
Do you think you're more ready for it now than you were maybe four years ago, eight years ago?
I think the experience I had running Harvard Pilgrim will make me a far better governor than I would have been having not done that. But I don't think that it made me a better campaigner.
I'll let you go, but one last thing: my sister radio station, WFNX, has this thing, they bring people in, and you get to pick a song, and someone else picks a song — Sam Yoon and Michael Flaherty went at it — and then the listeners vote.
I love that idea. I'm a huge music guy, so I'd love to do that.
I know you are, so I'm putting you on the spot. You've got to pick one song. So what would your song be?
Can you give me some sense of what the criteria for the song is?
It can be literally anything, you can pick any genre, any artist —
So the idea here is to pick a song that people would say, "Wow, that's a great song, I haven't thought about that song for a long time. . ."
