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How The Democrats Screwed Bernie From Political Strategist Tad Devine · Arroe Collins Like It's Live

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  Speaker 1: Oh, there's a reason why we created aro dot net
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  Speaker 1: a r r oe dot net because I'm a podcast listener.
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  Speaker 1: I gotta tell you, first of all, I love your name.
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  Speaker 1: Being a radio guy of forty six years, you don't
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  Speaker 1: come up. I mean, why is it that nobody has
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: jumped all over your name Tad? Because I mean it
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  Speaker 1: just seems like that would be the ultimate name, even
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: in movies, because I think it's even better than Johnny
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  Speaker 1: Depp for a name.
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  Speaker 2: Well, you know, my wife now of almost forty three years,
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  Speaker 2: when we started dating, we were both students together in
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  Speaker 2: law school, and she told her friends, I'm dating this
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  Speaker 2: guy's name is Tad devinely. He was like, what is he?
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  Speaker 2: A daytime soap opera star? I mean, I got a
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  Speaker 2: lot of blowback on my name, but you know, my
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  Speaker 2: name is actually Thomas Arthur, divine tad of my initials,
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  Speaker 2: and my parents always called me Tad's stuck with me
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  Speaker 2: all my life, and I'm I'm happy to have it
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  Speaker 2: as a name.
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  Speaker 1: You gotta, Oh my god, you've You've developed this voice
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  Speaker 1: now when it comes to Bernie Sanders, and I love
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  Speaker 1: it because so many of us have stood here on
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  Speaker 1: the sidelines going I ain't talking about this. I ain't
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  Speaker 1: talking about this. I'll get trolls. People are gonna come
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  Speaker 1: up to me. They're gonna think I'm an evil dude.
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  Speaker 1: So I, first of all, I commend you on having
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  Speaker 1: the courage to step out there saying, oh, by the way,
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  Speaker 1: we need to talk about something.
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  Speaker 2: Well, I'm glad I did it. You know, I was approached.
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  Speaker 2: I didn't really have any intention of writing a book,
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  Speaker 2: to be honest with you. It wasn't like I've got to
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  Speaker 2: write this book, you know, But I happened to be here.
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  Speaker 2: I'm in New York City today because we did a
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  Speaker 2: book launch yesterday. But my wife and I live on
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  Speaker 2: an island. Okay, it's called Block Island. It's off the
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  Speaker 2: coast of Rhode Island. We lived there year round. So
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  Speaker 2: I live a very quiet life in the smallest town
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  Speaker 2: in the smallest state in America. Okay. And you know,
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  Speaker 2: I got this email while I happen to be here
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  Speaker 2: for a friend's birthday party. And it was from an
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  Speaker 2: editor at Simon and Schuster. And the email said, gee,
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  Speaker 2: you know, we think there'd be a lot of interest
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  Speaker 2: in a ten year anniversary of Bernie Sanders twenty sixteen
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  Speaker 2: campaign of book about what happened and particularly what happened
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  Speaker 2: with the establishment. And so I said to him when
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  Speaker 2: I read the email, I said to my wife, Hey,
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  Speaker 2: these scammers are getting to be really professional now. They
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  Speaker 2: you know, they pretend they're a big publisher and they
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  Speaker 2: want you to write a book. So just because I
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  Speaker 2: happened to be in New York, I said, well, listen,
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  Speaker 2: I happen to be in town. If you want to
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  Speaker 2: get together tomorrow morning, well I'll be available. So I
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  Speaker 2: was more out of curiosity. I didn't really think it
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  Speaker 2: was a valid offer. And sure enough he said, well, yes,
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  Speaker 2: around where are you. We had breakfast. One thing leads
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  Speaker 2: to another. The next thing, you know, I got a book.
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  Speaker 2: I've got an agent. We're negotiating, and there it goes.
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  Speaker 2: But they also said, we'd like you to write this
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  Speaker 2: book with a reporter because we want the book. December fifteenth,
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  Speaker 2: This was now at May when we started talking and
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  Speaker 2: I said, listen, I'm not I write a book, but
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  Speaker 2: I can't. I'm not even writing a book with anybody,
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  Speaker 2: you know. I mean, I can't. I can't negotiate my
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  Speaker 2: own book. Okay, this is it. And so you know,
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  Speaker 2: I got this an agent, and the agent said to me, well,
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  Speaker 2: you don't have to really have somebody write a book
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  Speaker 2: with you or for you, but you can have somebody
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  Speaker 2: help you write a book. And I've got somebody who's
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  Speaker 2: done a lot of this with you know, other Court
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  Speaker 2: of appealed judges and things like that. And so I
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  Speaker 2: did wind up hiring somebody as part of my team
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  Speaker 2: to help me figure out what I wanted to do
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  Speaker 2: and how am I doing it, And between she and
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  Speaker 2: the editor, I think it's fair to say that, Well,
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  Speaker 2: the book is I think sixty two thousand words. I
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  Speaker 2: think I sent them one hundred and sixty most of it, okay.
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  Speaker 2: And that's how they helped me to That's how they
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  Speaker 2: helped me to write the book. That the book didn't
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  Speaker 2: drone on forever, you know the way I did when
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  Speaker 2: I was writing it, and we turned it more into
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  Speaker 2: a story, you know, a story that people could read
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  Speaker 2: that was successible, but also that you know, told what
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  Speaker 2: happened from somebody who was sitting in the front seat
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  Speaker 2: of it all, and you know it was a witness
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  Speaker 2: to it all. And you know, I I you know,
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  Speaker 2: I enjoyed doing it. In the end. It was a
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  Speaker 2: lot of work. And you know when you mentioned the
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  Speaker 2: voice before, I thought you were going to make reference to,
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  Speaker 2: you know, Bernie's voice, because I recorded the audio for
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  Speaker 2: the book and usually you don't do that. When I
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  Speaker 2: first suggested that I'd like to do it, then my
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  Speaker 2: editor said, well, you know, we have professional narrators. They
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  Speaker 2: do the book. And I said, well, you know, I've
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  Speaker 2: been directing, you know, audio recordings for years and my
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  Speaker 2: capacity is that someone who makes television ads, and you
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  Speaker 2: know I have the experience, so they let me do it.
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  Speaker 2: And I have to say those three days I was
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  Speaker 2: locked in a booth recording the audio for the book
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  Speaker 2: and what at one point in time. There's a part
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  Speaker 2: of the book where I talk about the three voices
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  Speaker 2: of Bernie Sanders and I describe how he sounds different
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  Speaker 2: because I spend so much time in the studio listening
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  Speaker 2: to him that I actually did it in the Bernie voice, okay,
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  Speaker 2: believe it or not. And you know, and everybody loved
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  Speaker 2: it in the studio, and they wound up putting in
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  Speaker 2: the audio track, just that little bit when I was
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  Speaker 2: talking about his three voices, and you know, and you know,
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  Speaker 2: you're in another world. When we were taking a lunch
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  Speaker 2: break when I was doing the recording session the second day,
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  Speaker 2: and I came out and I was actually working on
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  Speaker 2: my laptop on I'm doing a governor's campaign, a house campaign,
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  Speaker 2: and Attorney general's trace in my home state of Rhoe Island.
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  Speaker 2: So I'm busy with my ongoing work, you know, when
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  Speaker 2: I got this book thing, and you know, I finished
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  Speaker 2: the work on my laptop and I turned next to
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  Speaker 2: me and there's this guy there and it's Alec Baldwin
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  Speaker 2: and he's recording in the other booth. You know, I'm like,
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  Speaker 2: let me tell you, this is this is what the
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  Speaker 2: world's like here, you know, it's so far away from
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  Speaker 2: the island I live on, and it was It's been
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  Speaker 2: a great time. I've really enjoyed it. We had a
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  Speaker 2: great event last night. I did an interview on CNN,
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  Speaker 2: and you know, it's it's it's been fun to take
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  Speaker 2: this message out to people, and I hope they hear
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  Speaker 2: it because I think it's an important message for today,
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  Speaker 2: not just about ten years ago.
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  Speaker 1: Well, it's coming out at such the perfect time, and
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  Speaker 1: I do mean that, and I don't know it's not
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  Speaker 1: because I'm sitting down here in the South with everybody
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  Speaker 1: that's surrounding us. But the thing about it is, though,
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  Speaker 1: is that if you're in the front row, as you
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  Speaker 1: described in describing this with the experience, I guess we
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  Speaker 1: as readers, we're in the We're in the second row.
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  Speaker 1: And the reason why is because I always felt guilty
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  Speaker 1: that I couldn't figure out what the hell happened to
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  Speaker 1: this grassroots movement that was so frickin big, and that
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  Speaker 1: I was getting prepared to have Bernie Sanders finally as
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  Speaker 1: the President of the United States, and then I'll sudden
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  Speaker 1: it freaking disappears. It's it's like what the hell just
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  Speaker 1: happened here?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, well it's it's I guess the metaphor would be
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  Speaker 2: the rug is pulled out from underneath your feet. Okay,
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  Speaker 2: you know, I mean, you know, what I tried to
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  Speaker 2: describe in the book was a system that was rigged,
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  Speaker 2: a rigged nominating process, you know, beginning with the super deluggets,
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  Speaker 2: you know, you know, the calendar, the way things were organized,
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  Speaker 2: the use of the Democratic National Committee to you know,
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  Speaker 2: do whatever the Clinton campaign wanted, including at one point
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  Speaker 2: in time mid December, when we were closing in on
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  Speaker 2: her in New Hampshire, not just in New Hampshire we
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  Speaker 2: already had a lead, but in Iowa, where we had
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  Speaker 2: a real possibility of winning. You know, they decided to
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  Speaker 2: take the voter files away from us under really you know,
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  Speaker 2: just you know, made up circumstances. I mean, it was
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  Speaker 2: it was a campaign where at every turn there was
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  Speaker 2: always someone there to try to screw us. Okay, it
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  Speaker 2: was Harry Reid in Nevada decides he's going to come
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  Speaker 2: in and push the thing to Hillary at the end
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  Speaker 2: when he's we had told his college league, Bernie Sanders
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  Speaker 2: in the Senate that he was going to remain neutral
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  Speaker 2: that didn't happen. And don't take my word for it.
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  Speaker 2: John Ralston, who's the you know, really a top journalist
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  Speaker 2: and when it comes to the presidential politics in Nevada,
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  Speaker 2: wrote an opbed piece in the USA Today a week
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  Speaker 2: after the caucus is describing in detail how Harry Reid
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  Speaker 2: rigged it and threw it to Hurler to Hillary. So
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  Speaker 2: that process went on. You know, we lost, We accepted
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  Speaker 2: the loss. But what Bernie didn't lose was the opportunity
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  Speaker 2: to take his message that America has a rigged economy
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  Speaker 2: that is held in place by a corrupt system of
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  Speaker 2: campaign finance to all of the states. We did that,
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  Speaker 2: and I think that message has continued to percolate and
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  Speaker 2: today is really finding a hearing with so many people
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  Speaker 2: across the country.
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  Speaker 1: Dad, don't you find it fascinating to be a student
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  Speaker 1: of this everyday world? And we wish we could get
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  Speaker 1: more people on board because if we were to step
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  Speaker 1: back five or six steps and watch what's presently going on,
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  Speaker 1: because even today with Bernie Sanders in the nude in
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  Speaker 1: the news because of Graham Platner, and the thing about
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  Speaker 1: it is so I understand it is evil. I told
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  Speaker 1: totally get it. But the fact of the matter is
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  Speaker 1: they're playing it this far out of the elections coming up.
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  Speaker 1: It's almost like they're setting us up again for something,
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  Speaker 1: and it just it just it has my attention. And
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  Speaker 1: then I have your book and you're saying, hey, look,
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  Speaker 1: let's look at the entire picture here. You're still getting
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  Speaker 1: that lopsided you know, personal opinion. Let me show you
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  Speaker 1: other things that have been taking place before this. That's
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  Speaker 1: why I commend you, Tad.
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  Speaker 2: Well.
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  Speaker 1: Thanks.
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  Speaker 2: I hope that in that particular case, let's talk about Platinir,
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  Speaker 2: that the Democratic Party does not make the same mistake
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  Speaker 2: that it made in twenty sixteen. That mistake would be well,
• 8:36
  Speaker 2: got an incumbent governor. The governor could could be a
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  Speaker 2: strong candidate. She's won election statewide twice. We'll put her
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  Speaker 2: up against Collins, you know, as our nominee. Well, the
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  Speaker 2: problem with that solution is we just had a nominating
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  Speaker 2: process where people, you know, decided overwhelmingly that they were
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  Speaker 2: not going to support the governor in this race, that
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  Speaker 2: they wanted something different, that they wanted a change in policy.
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  Speaker 2: They want so to go to Washington and take on Trump.
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  Speaker 2: They want somebody who's going to pursue all different policies
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  Speaker 2: when it comes to healthcare, when it comes to jobs
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  Speaker 2: and wages, when it comes to a long litany of issues,
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  Speaker 2: on whose side you're going to be on, and if
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  Speaker 2: they decide that they're going to ram somebody in because
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  Speaker 2: they have the power to do it with the state
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  Speaker 2: committee or something like that, and not listen to the voters.
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  Speaker 2: My whole book is about we need to listen to
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  Speaker 2: the voters. We need to empower the voters. Let's get
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  Speaker 2: the voters in and participate. And the best system I
• 9:28
  Speaker 2: think in the primary process is where you have a
• 9:31
  Speaker 2: system where you know, people can register as a Democrat,
• 9:34
  Speaker 2: people can register as Republican, people can register as an independent,
• 9:38
  Speaker 2: and those independents can vote in a Democratic primary or
• 9:40
  Speaker 2: Republican primary, whatever you want to do. And when that happens,
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  Speaker 2: as it did in twenty sixteen in places like Wisconsin,
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  Speaker 2: in Michigan, in New Hampshire, those independents made a decision
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  Speaker 2: that they were going to go vote for Bernie and
• 9:52
  Speaker 2: they voted in such numbers that if they did it
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  Speaker 2: again in November, which I believe they would, he would
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  Speaker 2: have won the election. Okay, you know, and that's really
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  Speaker 2: what we have to do. Design a nominating process here
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  Speaker 2: in New York in twenty sixteen, if you wanted to
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  Speaker 2: if you weren't registered to vote, and you wanted to
• 10:07
  Speaker 2: vote in the Democratic primary, which was at the end
• 10:09
  Speaker 2: of April actually early April in twenty sixteen, you had
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  Speaker 2: to register to vote early in the fall of twenty fifteen. Okay,
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  Speaker 2: no one's seen a tv ad, no one even knows
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  Speaker 2: Bernie Sanders is alive at that point in time. But
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  Speaker 2: if you didn't get in and register as a Democrat
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  Speaker 2: in New York by that timetable, you couldn't play, Okay,
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  Speaker 2: And you know, hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of
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  Speaker 2: people were excluded from that primary process once the campaign
• 10:37
  Speaker 2: got going, and these were people who would have come,
• 10:40
  Speaker 2: who would have voted, and I think if they had participated,
• 10:43
  Speaker 2: Hillary Clinton, who used to be the Senator from New York,
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: would have lost in New York primary and maybe lost
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  Speaker 2: the domination. So we need to change our rules. We
• 10:50
  Speaker 2: need to make it inclusive. We need to get people involved,
• 10:53
  Speaker 2: and when they want to participate, we can't say, oh no,
• 10:55
  Speaker 2: you can't come in because you know, you haven't been
• 10:57
  Speaker 2: with us for the last ten years.
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  Speaker 1: Ooh ooh. That's a subject right there that we've got
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: to cover coming up next making changes. We're going to
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  Speaker 1: talk about that next as we return with Tad Divine,
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: the name of the book, How the Democrat screwed Bernie.
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: We are back with Tad Divine. We got to change
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: the rules on one thing. These these primaries where the
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: independents have no voice. We don't. We don't every primary.
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: I go in there and they go what team are
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: you on? And I go Independent? It was nice seeing
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: you today. You can go home now and it's like,
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: I have no voice. I literally have no voice. There's
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: got to be changes somewhere along the primary line here.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, and let me tell you something. Not only is
• 11:37
  Speaker 2: it bad that so many voters don't have a voice,
• 11:41
  Speaker 2: in my view, it's stupid. Okay, you know, and then
• 11:44
  Speaker 2: you know, and it's stupid if you're a political consultant
• 11:46
  Speaker 2: and you're trying to work for candidates to win elections
• 11:49
  Speaker 2: and you have a process where you can get people
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  Speaker 2: into your party early in an election cycle and they
• 11:55
  Speaker 2: know who the choices are. I mean, people can say
• 11:58
  Speaker 2: they knew there was Trump, they knew there was Bernie
• 12:00
  Speaker 2: if they want to change, and a lot of them said, okay, Trump,
• 12:04
  Speaker 2: I'm a little hesitant about but Bernie, Oh I don't
• 12:07
  Speaker 2: like the Democratic Socialists, But you know what, I like
• 12:08
  Speaker 2: what he's saying. I like what he's doing, and I
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  Speaker 2: can live with it, you know. And they went in
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  Speaker 2: and they voted for Bernie, and it made the party
• 12:15
  Speaker 2: bigger and stronger. But so many people in the Democratic
• 12:18
  Speaker 2: Party don't want that because they will lose their power, okay,
• 12:21
  Speaker 2: And I'm advocating giving power to voters so we can
• 12:25
  Speaker 2: gain the power that's important, that's the power to run
• 12:28
  Speaker 2: the government and pursue policies that help people.
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: Is Mandanni the new Bernie Sanders of the next generation?
• 12:35
  Speaker 2: Well, you know, and he's not eligible under our constitution,
• 12:38
  Speaker 2: all right, right, I don't see him pursuing that. But
• 12:44
  Speaker 2: I think what the mayor has done, and I love
• 12:47
  Speaker 2: what he's done. I I one of my former business
• 12:50
  Speaker 2: partner actually worked on the firm and working now for
• 12:53
  Speaker 2: the firm who did Mandami's you know advertising, And when
• 12:56
  Speaker 2: he sent me the first ad. You know, this is
• 12:58
  Speaker 2: early on in the campaign, had one TV ad, barely
• 13:01
  Speaker 2: enough money to get it on, but they did, and
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  Speaker 2: I saw the end and I called him up. And
• 13:05
  Speaker 2: my former partner actually was a student of mine when
• 13:07
  Speaker 2: I used to teach at Boston University many years ago,
• 13:09
  Speaker 2: and then he came into the prisoness and went he
• 13:11
  Speaker 2: worked from our firm, and then he wound up being
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  Speaker 2: my business partner. So I've known him since he was
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  Speaker 2: a college student. And I said, listen, I think he's
• 13:18
  Speaker 2: going to win. And he was like, well, you know,
• 13:20
  Speaker 2: you're the only you know, nobody thinks we even have
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  Speaker 2: a chance. Why do you say that? And I said, well,
• 13:25
  Speaker 2: because one of the most important lessons I ever learned
• 13:27
  Speaker 2: in politics was from John Silber, who he used to
• 13:29
  Speaker 2: work for. He was president of Boston University. He ran
• 13:31
  Speaker 2: for God. I met him when he ran for governor
• 13:33
  Speaker 2: of Massachusetts because I played his opponent, Bill Weld in
• 13:36
  Speaker 2: debate prep and I came in, I debated him, and
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  Speaker 2: then three months later called me up. He said, no
• 13:40
  Speaker 2: one ever beat me in a debate before. Will you
• 13:41
  Speaker 2: come work for me? And I had just done it,
• 13:43
  Speaker 2: losing campaign, and I had no job. He said, well,
• 13:45
  Speaker 2: maybe I get him at a job. I've got three
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  Speaker 2: kids and I need some health care, you know, So
• 13:49
  Speaker 2: I worked from two and a half years, and he
• 13:50
  Speaker 2: said to me, because I took a leave of absence
• 13:53
  Speaker 2: to work for Bob Carey when he ran for president,
• 13:56
  Speaker 2: I was his campaign manager in nineteen ninety two and
• 13:59
  Speaker 2: I stopped at the office to show him Doctor Silver,
• 14:01
  Speaker 2: one of the ads we had just done. And he
• 14:03
  Speaker 2: saw the ad and he didn't like some of the stuff,
• 14:05
  Speaker 2: and he said, let me tell you the greatest lesson
• 14:07
  Speaker 2: I learned running for governor. They're not going to vote
• 14:09
  Speaker 2: for you unless they like you, you know, and you
• 14:11
  Speaker 2: have to make that connection with people. And I think
• 14:14
  Speaker 2: that's what Bernie did. And the connection is not necessarily
• 14:17
  Speaker 2: based on personality or you know, in Mandamie's case, here's
• 14:21
  Speaker 2: a guy always smiling, Here's a guy who's always thought,
• 14:23
  Speaker 2: here's a guy who's always positive, you know. I think
• 14:25
  Speaker 2: that helps. In Bernie's case, he's never going to be
• 14:28
  Speaker 2: that way in terms of demeanor. But the thing that
• 14:30
  Speaker 2: he has with Bombi that Madamie has too is authenticity. Yep, Okay,
• 14:36
  Speaker 2: that's what people want. They want authenticity. You need emotion
• 14:41
  Speaker 2: when you deliver these issues. Certainly in my field television advertising,
• 14:44
  Speaker 2: you want to hit an emotional cord. Make that connection.
• 14:47
  Speaker 2: And you must have the gift of storytelling. You know,
• 14:50
  Speaker 2: I have to tell stories in thirty seconds. They get
• 14:52
  Speaker 2: to give the speeches and things like that. But if
• 14:54
  Speaker 2: you tell the story people remember, if you make an
• 14:56
  Speaker 2: emotional connection with him, if you're authentic, then you can
• 14:59
  Speaker 2: connect with voters and then you can win elections.
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: All right, here's your biggest challenge, Tad, right, I dare
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: you to challenge this, okay, and that is is that
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: I want you to get a fourteen second Taylor Swift
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: song and I want you to put that message in
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: fourteen seconds over that intro, because that's how radio people
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: do it. And it's like, I mean, I'm jealous that
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: you have so much time to share a message. Oh,
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: we may have seven seconds here now. You know what
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: I'm saying is it's like, because I know you've got it, Tad.
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: You because you're a writer and you totally get who
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: your audience is and who you're trying to reach. You've
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: got it.
• 15:31
  Speaker 2: What am I supposed to do in fourteen seconds? Tell
• 15:33
  Speaker 2: you what democrats are going to win? Well?
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: In other words, it's like it's like that's one of
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: the biggest challenges because you're right. They ed edit everything
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: we do, even if we're doing a live lecture or
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: some sort of message. The fact of the matter is
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: they edit you down to the point. And I always say,
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: go practice on a Taylor Swift fourteen second intro to
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: get your message across. If you can do it in
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: fourteen seconds.
• 15:53
  Speaker 2: You win. Yeah. Well, you know that's the way it
• 15:57
  Speaker 2: is in politics. I mean, we have we have we
• 16:00
  Speaker 2: have six second ads. We do have fifteen second ads
• 16:04
  Speaker 2: that we condense a thirty second ad too. I personally,
• 16:07
  Speaker 2: you know, when I do ad, making the longer the
• 16:09
  Speaker 2: better for me. And I think the best ad that
• 16:12
  Speaker 2: we made in Bertie Sanders campaign was America, which was
• 16:15
  Speaker 2: based on Paul Simon and Ark GoF Uncle's you know
• 16:17
  Speaker 2: song America. First of all, when someone gives you a
• 16:21
  Speaker 2: piece of music like that, you know you can really
• 16:24
  Speaker 2: make a great ad. I got to tell you, you know,
• 16:26
  Speaker 2: to have that kind of emotion and storytelling all there,
• 16:30
  Speaker 2: you know, in that music, and then to come in
• 16:33
  Speaker 2: and to try to infuse it with the images that
• 16:37
  Speaker 2: connect with people. It's so powerful. It moves their heart,
• 16:40
  Speaker 2: it moves their soul. I think we did that in
• 16:43
  Speaker 2: the campaign. And you know, trying to do it, you know,
• 16:46
  Speaker 2: and listen, we made five second ads about that we
• 16:50
  Speaker 2: sent to young people in New Hampshire, trying to get
• 16:54
  Speaker 2: them and to bring their parents with them to the
• 16:56
  Speaker 2: caucus into the primary. You know, that made a connection
• 16:59
  Speaker 2: and a lot of kids, you know, they connected. You know.
• 17:02
  Speaker 2: One thing we did in Iowa was the Jeff Weaver,
• 17:04
  Speaker 2: the campaign manager's idea is we were trying to find
• 17:06
  Speaker 2: seventeen year olds because in Iowa, if you're seventeen, you
• 17:09
  Speaker 2: can participate in the caucus as long as you're going
• 17:11
  Speaker 2: to turn eighteen by election day in November, so that
• 17:13
  Speaker 2: includes everybody. So but finding these people was hard. Jeff
• 17:16
  Speaker 2: came up with the idea when he found out that
• 17:18
  Speaker 2: there was a mailing list for every high school yearbook
• 17:21
  Speaker 2: in Iowa and we could get the mailing addressed email
• 17:24
  Speaker 2: address of every single seventeen year old the state. We
• 17:27
  Speaker 2: did that, We went out and we suddenly started making
• 17:30
  Speaker 2: contact with this whole group of voters who did not
• 17:32
  Speaker 2: sit around watching TV all day. You know, at the
• 17:34
  Speaker 2: end of the day, they're getting stuff online and we
• 17:36
  Speaker 2: were now able to talk to them aggressively, particularly online,
• 17:40
  Speaker 2: and these young people turned out for Bernie. And it's
• 17:44
  Speaker 2: the reason that he almost won the Iowa caucus after
• 17:47
  Speaker 2: starting off fifty points behind, because you know, you've got
• 17:50
  Speaker 2: to try to find ways to make those connections with
• 17:52
  Speaker 2: people to get your message in front of them, and
• 17:55
  Speaker 2: most importantly, you have to know how to talk to them.
• 17:57
  Speaker 2: You know, I had in the general election, the Clinton
• 18:00
  Speaker 2: campaign called us and said, can Bernie make an ad?
• 18:03
  Speaker 2: And so I hadn't really seen him since I left
• 18:05
  Speaker 2: the campaign in June, and I went to Vermont and
• 18:08
  Speaker 2: directed a film shop with him, and you know, we
• 18:10
  Speaker 2: made a television which was great, which you know, they
• 18:12
  Speaker 2: focus grouped it to death and they never put it
• 18:14
  Speaker 2: on TV. And we made a bunch of digital ads
• 18:17
  Speaker 2: for them, and one of them was about young people,
• 18:19
  Speaker 2: and you know, and I was saying, listen, we've only
• 18:20
  Speaker 2: got we got two and a half hours to do
• 18:22
  Speaker 2: all this stuff. We've got about ten things we've got
• 18:23
  Speaker 2: to do. Why don't I just put it on a teleprompter.
• 18:25
  Speaker 2: You and I will read it, We'll make whatever changes
• 18:27
  Speaker 2: you want, and then we'll record it. And so, so,
• 18:29
  Speaker 2: you know, to expedite things. We did that, and when
• 18:31
  Speaker 2: the ad came up for the young people, he said
• 18:34
  Speaker 2: this isn't the way you talk to young people like adults,
• 18:38
  Speaker 2: you know, and so you know, and so he wrote
• 18:40
  Speaker 2: he rewrote it, and it was a It's a great
• 18:42
  Speaker 2: example of how he was in connected. He was connected
• 18:46
  Speaker 2: to these people much older than them, obviously, but so
• 18:49
  Speaker 2: connected to them almost in a way that Obama was.
• 18:52
  Speaker 2: You know that he really understood what they were looking
• 18:55
  Speaker 2: for in terms of the leadership they wanted for their future,
• 18:59
  Speaker 2: and he connected with them because he did treat them
• 19:02
  Speaker 2: like adults. And the party was like giving, you know, attention,
• 19:05
  Speaker 2: young people. We're talking to you now. You know. It's
• 19:07
  Speaker 2: like no, no, we're not doing that, you know. So anyway, I.
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: Got to tell you the reason why I love him
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: is the fact that it's it's not that we're happy
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: to see Bernie Sanders. We're happy that Bernie Sanders sees us.
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: And that's what I feel every time. And that's what
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: I feel in this book, is that you see us, tad,
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: and you have no idea how this book needs to
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: be in eighth grade history classes, because that's where decision
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: making begins even younger than that, when it comes to
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: how this country is formed and will continue to grow.
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: This is an important book right now.
• 19:39
  Speaker 2: Well, irall, thank you for that. I you know, when
• 19:41
  Speaker 2: I finished writing it, I was thinking about the book
• 19:44
  Speaker 2: and hoping that people, young people. I was thinking more
• 19:47
  Speaker 2: college kids. You know. I'm sorry some of the language
• 19:50
  Speaker 2: I use in the book. Maybe is it appropriate?
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: They know it, they know they.
• 19:56
  Speaker 2: Yeah, probably, I think you're right. But I was hoping
• 19:59
  Speaker 2: that kids, if young people who want to get involved
• 20:01
  Speaker 2: in politics, will read my book and say, Okay, I
• 20:04
  Speaker 2: can do this. I can figure out how to deliver
• 20:07
  Speaker 2: a message, I can figure out how to be part
• 20:09
  Speaker 2: of a campaign, and I can make a difference in
• 20:12
  Speaker 2: the future of this country, you know. And That's what
• 20:14
  Speaker 2: I'm hoping comes out of it more than anything else,
• 20:16
  Speaker 2: that people will see a way forward for them to
• 20:19
  Speaker 2: participate in our politics and make a difference for our
• 20:21
  Speaker 2: country's future.
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: You got to come back to this show anytime in
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: the future. I love where your heart is. I love
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: how you are educating this without us making feel like,
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: oh it's or so students in the back row. No, no,
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: you're thinking about every one of us. So please come
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: back to this show anytime.
• 20:35
  Speaker 2: I'd love to arrow. It's been great to talk to you.
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: Will you be brilliant today.
• 20:39
  Speaker 2: Okay, sir, okay, thanks so much.