Publishing People for Obama Fundraiser, June 18

I had a great week in Toronto, covering the North by Northeast festival (NXNE) for this blog, and working with my new client Speakerfile, but when I booked the trip in late May, I deliberately scheduled my departure for mid-afternoon on the Monday, June 18, with a hoped-for return landing at LaGuardia before rush hour. This was designed to give me some time in Toronto that workday, while also allowing me to make it to the Publishing People for Obama reception and fundraiser that was being held that evening from 6-8 in the Midtown Loft at Fifth Avenue and 29th Street. I lucked out last Monday. Though the day was extremely hot and hazy in Toronto and only a bit less so in NY, there were no thunderstorms messing up the northeast corridor and nothing delayed my departure and rapid return home to Manhattan.

Since I had not flown in a sportcoat and dress shirt, I wanted to change in to an outfit that would come close to business attire, or semi-business attire. How was I going to do this? In the back of a livery cab? I didn’t think so. I lucked out again and had a funny sort of sitcom moment when I found a “family restroom” at LaGuardia, with a door I could lock and then dig into my luggage for my toothbrush and a suitable change of clothes. So far as I know, I didn’t inconvenience any desperate parent with a baby in need of a diaper change–at least no one banged on the door begging entrance, nor did any airport guard see me go in and out of this inner sanctum of airport privacy.

With luggage in tow, I reached the loft space, showed my passport at the front table (since it was handy) and stowed my stuff in a nearby coat closet. (I’d wondered if a security detail would want to inspect my belongings, but luck prevailed again and no one did). Unencumbered at last, I began greeting publishing friends who had also donated to the president’s reelection campaign via our organizing committee and, like me, were eager to hear from our guest speaker, presidential advisor David Plouffe, and later Rosanne Cash, the evening’s entertainment. I saw the event co-hosts Barbara Lowenstein, Roger Cooper, Tom Dunne, and Bob Miller. Over the next few minutes I saw and spoke with Will Schwalbe, whose second book, The End of Life Book Club will be out this fall; Fauzia and John Burke, of the indie publicity firm FSB Associates, which set up the Facebook page for the event; Linda Johns and George Gibson, of Bloomsbury Publishing, as well as Peter Ginna, of Bloomsbury; Mike Shatzkin and Martha Moran, longtime book biz friends going back to my bookstore days; book packager and publishing consultant David Wilk, and his wife Laura, a watercolor artist;  Brian DeFiore, Irene Skolnick, Deborah Schneider, Scott Waxman, and Alice Fried Martell, all literary agents with their own agencies; Michael Coffey, co-editor of Publishers Weekly, and his wife Rebecca Smith, a sculptor; and Marc E. Jaffe, a publishing advisor whom I hadn’t seen in ages. It should also be said that many people from outside of New York donated, but didn’t attend the event. Thanks to them all too!

Many of these people I saw on the rooftop, where we enjoyed a great view of the Manhattan skyline all around us, including the Empire State Building at 34th Street, which seemed close enough to touch. Soon, with the evening’s program approaching we were urged to head back downstairs to the main room, which by now had become very crowded. Pretty soon there were so many familiar faces I couldn’t keep track of who I was seeing. The space got full very fast.

Plouffe is slender and perhaps around 5′ 10″. He has thin hands and long fingers on a slight frame, with a rather bird-like profile. He spoke for about twenty minutes, and then took a half-dozen questions. He thanked us all for contributing to the campaign, and said he believes it’s going to be a close election, and tougher to win than in 2008. He referred to the possibility that Mitt Romney could win, though he also expressed confidence the president will be re-elected. He said only one president has ever been re-elected amid an economy overcoming a depression or recession as severe as the one we’ve endured. That was FDR, in 1936. Plouffe also talked about the veritable flood of Super Pac money flowing against the president and other Democrats, and observed that at times it feels as if their opponent isn’t Mitt Romney, but all the Super Pacs. He pledged that the campaign will do everything possible to remind the American people of how damaging the stated policies of Mitt Romney and the Republican congress would be for the country. He said there is still much that the American people has to learn about Romney–for instance, he said that barely 50% of the country even knows he served as a governor, or what his record was while in office. He promised the campaign will draw sharp contrasts between the president and Romney whenever possible. He asked for our help, and our time as volunteers, for instance by making calls to swing states, or visiting them if you’re able to do so. In 2008 I made calls to Ohio (the state I was born), Virginia, Colorado, and Pennsylvania and will do so again.

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Upon entry to the loft, participants had been handed little cards on which we were invited to write questions that would be asked of Plouffe later in the evening. Distracted with my luggage upon arrival, I hadn’t gotten around to thinking of a question and writing it down. After Plouffe’s talk, the questions were read out to him by an African-American woman who was with him and the campaign (and whose name unfortunately I never learned). The questions were all about the campaign and policy, such as, “How will the administration deal with a Supreme Court decision that rules against the Affordable Care Act? (ACA)” Depends on what exactly they do, he said–rule it all illegal, or only part of it, such as the mandate. And, the court, even this hyper-partisan court with its high degree of politicization–may yet find the law constitutional. Interestingly, even in this publishing crowd, no question was asked about the Department of Justice investigation of alleged collusion in the agency model with regard to ebook pricing. I imagine that Plouffe would have had something to say about the issue, but it didn’t come up. On reflection, I should have asked a question about how the Obama campaign can address the media’s failure to adequately report on the incessant lies of the Romney campaign.

Soon, Plouffe left the stage amid some bedlam as people rushed toward him in hopes of engaging with him. I was near the staffer who nervously told me he had a plane to catch. If I had a word with him, I’d planned to thank him for his work on behalf of the country, President Obama, and the Democratic Party, and then tell him that in 1996 I happened to have published the first paperback edition of Dreams From My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance by Illinois State Senator Barack Obama. As it was, while we inched toward the door, I quickly related this to the woman and asked her to please give him my card. And with that, they were gone.

While waiting for Rosanne Cash to take the stage with the superb guitar player John Leventhal, we learned from Barbara Lowenstein that the event had raised $143,000 and she was hopeful we’d reach $150,000 before all was said and done. I immediately began thinking of the $25 million Sheldon Adelson had a couple days earlier announced he was giving to Romney friendly Super Pacs, and realized that between Plouffe’s answer about the ACA and the Supreme Court, and the Court’s Citizens United ruling that engendered the monstrosity of the Super Pacs, Americans’ lives are really being determined by the Supreme Court. This of course makes the outcome of this fall’s election all the more critical. I tried not to feel despair or too much anxiety as I pondered this perverse national dynamic.

Cash and Leventhal played three songs to a core group of listeners who paid rapt attention, while many revelers seemed to not realize that Rosanne (effing) Cash was playing. Still, it was great hearing her and sharing the entire special occasion with so many close publishing friends. Although I only thought of taking pictures rather late in the evening, here are a few photos that came out okay.