It was August 1995 in the sweltering heat of Texas when the Dean of Social Sciences at the University of Texas at Dallas received a call from CNN asking for graduate students that wanted to spend the weekend working for them to cover Ross Perot’s United We Stand America Convention, I immediately accepted as it was a great opportunity and honor to work the event, and hey, it was $100 per day! The convention was an interesting one in which luminaries from both parties and neither were given voice to speak to that elusive independent vote; this spoke to me because as a student of social science, we were trained to look beyond ideology, so I am in fact, non-partisan, and always hoping that when the one ideology makes it to power, the items on their agenda that I agree with get traction, while the less savory ones fall by the wayside (this has not happened much as of late). My “agnostic” approach to politics has surely fired up my ideologue friends and acquaintances on both sides of the aisle.
At any rate, the lot of us were given different roles, some worked the teleprompter, and some had other certain assignments; mine was mainly in driving CNN employees from the airport and hotels to the convention center. In the course of that job I either met or was in close proximity to the classic lineup of CNN, including Bernie Shaw, David Broder, Larry King, Joie Chen, George Stephanopoulos (who was still working for Clinton), and of course Robert Novak. All politics aside, Mr. Novak was a really genuine and approachable guy; I remember catching him in the men’s room, where he was shaving with a straight edge razor, and I made the comment, “doing it old school” and I don’t think he caught the meaning (straight edge versus electric) and he answered, “Don’t want to pull a Nixon”, referring to when Nixon came to the debate with Kennedy sick and unshaven, an event that has often been pointed out as a factor that led up to Nixon’s loosing. Novak carried on a brief conversation with no noticeable sense of entitlement; he came across very genuine, and it was a pleasure to have had that brief moment to share with him.
So then, farewell Robert, and may you be remembered.
