I was wrong. It wasn't 185 degrees today at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books up at UCLA. In fact, it was barely over the 175 mark. It was educational, though. I learned that it's hard to sign autographs when the gel ink in your pen is boiling.
The place was packed with book publishers, booksellers, authors and folks to buy items from the first three groups. Still, I think the ones who really made money today were the vendors with the $5.00 lemonade. Should ice, water and a spoonful of Country Time cost more than a comparable volume of Super Unleaded? Especially these days?
I attended two panel discussions. The first was entitled "State of Crisis: Can Government Work?" and the dais consisted of Nancy Snow, John W. Dean and moderator John Powers. (Michael Gerson, who'd been announced, did not show. No explanation was given.) Much of it consisted of Dean warning what he thinks may happen if John McCain is elected and, to appease the extreme right-wing of his party, has to appoint one or more right-wingers to the Supreme Court. The portrait he painted sounded pretty scary, even for Conservatives who don't think the president, whoever it is, should operate without checks and balances. After the panel, I got Mr. Dean to sign a copy of his new book on Barry Goldwater.
Later in the day, my friends Donna, Gordon and I went to hear a panel on the current presidential campaign moderated by Scott Kraft of the L.A. Times and featuring David Frum, Garrett M. Graff, Hugh Hewitt and Robert Scheer. It basically consisted of Hewitt predicting doom for the Democrats if they nominate Barack Obama and Scheer predicting doom for the Democrats if they listen to Hugh Hewitt.
I like and follow some Conservative pundits — in fact, I occasionally think Frum makes a surprising amount of sense — but Hugh Hewitt is not among them. He's always struck me as a guy who knows that there's a decent living to be made by telling a certain, narrow audience what they want to hear, and denying any facts that go counter to it. His new line is that Obama is too radical for America so to nominate him would be like — this is the analogy he used — the end scene of Thelma and Louise, driving off the cliff. He cited polls that say a hefty number of Hillary supporters say they will vote for McCain if she doesn't get the nomination.
I don't believe that. Not long ago, there was a moment when Republicans who didn't want McCain — Hewitt is one — thought there was still a slim chance he could be denied the nomination. "We'll vote for Hillary before we'll vote for McCain," said people like Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter. And of course, once McCain locked up the nomination, they all fell in line and said not another syllable about voting for Hillary. In exactly the same way, most Democrats who back Hillary and now say they'll vote for McCain if she isn't the nominee will decide to back the nominee of their party.
Robert Scheer was quite interesting as he talked about why he, a former Hillary backer, is now rooting for Obama and somewhat confident of victory. The short version is that he believes a country that so overwhelmingly believes the country is on the wrong course — 81% in one poll — is not going to install a president whose policies and pledges so closely mirror George W. Bush's.
This, of course, reflects my viewpoint…and also those of most in the audience today. Hewitt kept saying that we were not typical of America and he alluded to other audiences he's addressed. It's true, I'm sure, that he speaks to groups that cheer where we booed and vice-versa…but in a country where more than 60% of the country thinks George W. Bush has been a terrible president (as opposed to 28% who like him) and where more than 80% say things are bad and getting worse, I tend to think we were more typical of the country than he'd like to believe or at least admit.
Later, I got one other autographed book. Stan Chambers was there signing his autobiography. If you grew up in L.A. when I grew up in L.A., I don't have to tell you who Stan Chambers is. For those who need an explanation, I'll quote something I wrote here a little while ago when I linked to a video clip of newspeople on KTLA, Channel 5 in this town…
…KTLA had some fine news reporters, especially a gent named Stan Chambers, who is unmentioned in today's clip but who did remarkable work. When there was trouble anywhere in L.A., Stan Chambers would be there covering it sooner than anyone else and from some amazing vantage point. When we had the famous police shootout with the Symbionese Liberation Front, the joke was that every other reporter was covering it from outside while Chambers was in the house with the suspects.
I told that to Mr. Chambers while he was signing my book and he laughed.
Then I spent the rest of my afternoon sitting at a table, signing Kirby: King of Comics for folks, some of whom knew of Kirby, a few of whom did not. Oddly, I occasionally have to explain to someone that it is not a book of my artwork. One lady who otherwise seemed rather normal couldn't quite understand how I could be the author of a book that I didn't draw. She seemed so baffled that she got me to wondering if maybe I had it wrong.
I had a good time today. I need to remember to clear my schedule enough next April to spend both days at the Book Festival. I missed a lot of good stuff yesterday because I had to work on a script. Then again, yesterday was hotter so maybe I'm glad I wasn't there.