Thursday, October 08, 2009

It Ain't Over Until . . .

One of the pleasures of talking about RTRP is learning new tales of Bill. Tony Hall, one of the audience at the Pacific Research Institute event in San Francisco, told me a great one about Bill debating Mayor Alioto on Firing Line (Hall was a young aide).

Alioto was splendidly turned out in high Italian style. He also answered very long — not to the point, but verbosely enough to keep Bill's responses hemmed in. He made one grave mistake, alluding to Bill and other conservatives as Irishmen.

Hall said that throughout the show, Bill sized Alioto up. Then, as the last break ended, he leaned forward and murmured, "All right, paesan, I'm going to take the gloves off." By putting it that way, he already had. A flustered Alioto crumpled.

So debates are not always won by pure intellect. No need to tell Socrates — he already knows that.

10/08 05:08 PMShare