At the Republican Convention, I interviewed Hugh Hewitt.
http://hughhewitt.townhall.com/blog
Hugh Hewitt is one of the top conservative radio talk show hosts in America. He is also the preeminent political blogger in the country. He will be putting on Blogworld Expo at the Las Vegas Convention Center from September 19th through the 21st.
I initially met him at the Reagan Library at a function sponsored by the Republican Jewish Coalition.
I went up to him very politely, and explained that I was a blogger. He looked at me, and instantly understood why I told him that. He replied in a friendly manner, “You want a link.”
I absolutely did. I did not know this at the time, but he actually did read what I gave him. Although he said I could contact him at any time, I did not want to take advantage of his generosity. Every 3 to 4 months, I would submit something to him. He was encouraging, and when I let him know that I was beginning my own radio show, he sent me a very supportive email.
At the Republican Convention, it was nice to finally sit down with him, with him being the interviewee.
The interview is below.
1) What are the most important issues of 2008?
HH: “The War and the Supreme Court. John McCain will win the former, and he will appoint well to the latter. Barack Obama will do neither of these things.”
2) What issues are most important to you personally?
HH: “The same as number one. The War and the Supreme Court. 6 of the Justices are 68 years of age or older. It is vital that the right Justices be chosen to replace them.”
3) What is the future of blogging? Where do we go from here?
HH: “We are really in the trenches, and we have to be prepared. The Daily Kos slimed Sarah Palin, and it is going to get dirtier. The blogosphere on the right must push back responsibly.”
4) How would you like to be remembered 100 years from now? What would you want people to say about Hugh Hewitt the person?
HH: “Nobody will remember me in 100 years. If I am remembered, I would like it to be as a man of faith and a great husband.”
5) One of the things I learned the hard way early on was that once it is on the internet, it is there forever, and errors in judgment can damage brands. What advice can you give bloggers regarding branding?
HH: “Building a brand takes time. The key is to promote yourself, not other people. One of the things that you personally did correctly was send me links to your own blog. You also didn’t do it every day, but when you thought you had written something of quality. So many bloggers send links to various articles they have read, rather than directing people to their own work. I read the articles you sent me.”
I thanked Hugh Hewitt very much for the interview, but the biggest surprise was yet to come. Later on that evening, I stopped by his radio show with a nervous request. I asked him if I could make a brazen request, but for the sake of ethics, it was a very nervous one. Without stating what the request was, since it can be inferred, Hugh Hewitt is one successful person that truly does believe in lifting up other potential talent. I thanked him for his time, which occurred on the second night of the convention.
I was having a conversation with somebody else on the third night of the convention when Hugh Hewitt saw me. He was doing his radio show, and called out my name. I turned around, and he motioned me into his guest chair. For two to three minutes, I was a guest on his show. While I have a lighthearted side, I kept it very professional, in keeping with the dignified and high brow manner in which he conducts his radio show. I spoke about the purpose of my blog, which was and is primarily about combating ideological bigotry.
For those who do not know, two to three minutes on his show is enough time for a blogger to be flooded with congratulatory emails. I sent Hugh Hewitt a thank you note, but I did not realize that my biggest thank you was yet to come.
After Sarah Palin’s speech, I ran into him again. In all fairness, he was in the same place, and I kept walking back and forth. Nevertheless, he asked me my opinion on the speech. It was at that moment that I remembered the advice from my dad, which was that when somebody very important asks your opinion, answer quickly and intelligently, and then shut up. The Tygrrrr Express was going to be a ramble free zone.
I told him that I felt that Sarah Palin was the second coming of Margaret Thatcher. I also expressed that she had more testosterone than the entire Democratic Party, and that one woman pointed out to me that she also had more of it than much of the Republican Party. He seemed amused by my comments, and offered his own opinion on Palin, which was also highly favorable.
I wrote a column about Sarah Palin’s speech, published it, and came back to Los Angeles. The last thing I told Hugh Hewitt was that given how nice it was of him to have me as a radio guest, I had no more favors to ask him. From then on, whenever I saw him, it was just to say hello. The more someone give a person, the less the receiver should ask for.
Sitting at my desk in Los Angeles, my friend congratulated me on Hugh Hewitt publishing my column on his site. I had no idea. I raced to the site, and right at the top was what I had asked for the first time I met him. He had given me a link.
For those who do not know, one link from Hugh Hewitt causes a blogger’s traffic to explode. It was a spike that rivaled the ascension of the price of oil. Like the price of oil, I have come down from the Hugh Hewitt High, but am still sitting at a healthy, light, sweet, level.
So all in all, I interviewed him for several minutes, and he then interviewed me. I had linked to him, and he had linked to me. Besides, who knows? Maybe there are actually people in this world somewhere that have heard of me and not heard of him. Theoretically it is possible. My relatives read my blog more than his. Well, some of them anyway. Maybe I even increased his traffic by a fraction of a percentage.
Either way, I have one obligation to Hugh Hewitt, but it is the same one I have to myself. I must continue to write well. Hugh Hewitt has stayed successful because he zealously guards his brand. I was vetted for an entire year before he took a chance on me. Letting him down or giving him pause to regret that decision is not a viable option.
I thank him for his kindness of spirit, and for his taking a calculated risk on a raw talent with potential. Like oil, I could sometimes use a refinery to smooth out my product.
It has been a pleasure getting to know Hugh Hewitt. I wish the very best for him always.
One day, when my success is staggering, I know who my first guest will be.
Thank you Mr. Hewitt. Thank you very much sir.
eric
Sorry to stray, but… Boy, I’d sure like to hear from a guy in the finance sector what he thinks of the WS meltdown this week… Nothing to say? I know I do.
Anyways…
I’d like to get back to this crusade against “ideological bigotry.” I’m really not sure what this is all about. I mean, I get some of it: let’s have an open dialogue, let’s not shoot the messanger, let’s not blacklist people for their personal beliefs, etc. But beyond these ideas, which I too share, what exactly do you mean.
For example, I think back to this article back in January on Human Events… http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=18953
There’s a couple of odd messages in this article.
“I was reminded of the Paige controversy when I read a piece last month by Jacob Weisberg, the editor of Slate, the online magazine owned by the Washington Post Co. Titled simply, “A Mormon President? No Way,” the December 20 column is, simply put, an exercise in bigotry.
”[I]f he gets anywhere in the primaries,” Weisberg declared, “Romney’s religion will become an issue with moderate and secular voters—and rightly so.” And as if realizing that he has just declared open season on religious belief, Weisberg quickly added: “Objecting to someone because of his religious beliefs is not the same thing as prejudice based on religious heritage, race, or gender.”
Thus does the left casually open the door to the baldest sort of bigotry, a first cousin of the anti-Catholicism thought buried in 1960, or the anti-Semitism that continues to plague Europe and of course the Middle East. The not-so-deft substitution of “religious heritage” for “religion” is supposed, I guess, to protect Jews willing to abandon the outward display of their faith, but for anyone believing in the miraculous of any sort, well, those days of the great tolerance in American politics are over.”
So, is Weisberg in league with antisemites? Is the Left in league with ardent anti-Catholic conservative WASPs of the pre-Neocon era? Is their logic the same? And if it is, then were all those conservative WASPs bigots? Do you see the contradictory logic here?
Shouldn’t we be concerned about the religious beliefs of our elected leaders? Kennedy didn’t complain when people came after his Catholicism – he simply made a famous speech to a bunch of WASPs reminding them that he was a secularist first and foremost when it came to acting as an elected official. Romney could have done that <embut the GOP would have immediately written him off. Romney was trapped – he couldn’t negate his religious beliefs with secularism, the GOP (not the Dems and Libs) were his problem with this, and so he had somehow to show that he would be a Mormon President and not just a President who happens to be a Momon, to borrow an aphorism from you. The GOP does not want a secularist in power. They want a religious zealot (which should scare the hell out of you personally). And that’s one of the reasons John McCain picked Sarah Palin.
And so then this comes to mind…
“Rush said: “Yeah, plus she’s a housewife; before that, she’s a babe. I saw a picture. . . . The babe is the icing-on-the-cake aspect, something the Democrats can’t claim on their side.”
National Review writer Stephen Sprueill called Palin a “solidly conservative (and ridiculously good-looking) Republican.” Thomas Cheplick in The American Spectator, wrote that “the beautiful conservative Republican governor of Alaska would be an ideal choice” for vice president. Peggy Noonan called Palin “this beautiful girl.” “She’s sexy. Men want a sexy woman,” CNBC’s Donny Deutsch told viewers. “Women want to idealize about a sexy woman. . . . She’s a lioness. . . . Women want to be her. Men want to mate with her.”
This MILFish sheen is enough for them to qualify a vice president, no matter she considers refueling in Ireland a visit to Europe, or going up to Iraq’s border fence a visit to Iraq.
And of course, you can have it both ways, if you’re a Republican, thank you very much. If you won’t vote for her because you want to (redacted) her, (say, you’re a straight woman…) then you can vote for her because she’s a female and a victim of mysogyny. McCain spokeswoman Carly Fiorina, with all her chilly, corporate boardroom fury, called Tina Fey’s portrayal of Palin on Saturday Night Live “sexist” and “disrespectful.”
They’re a little late in the game for this feminism stuff — for Republicans, sexism is defined as, “criticism of our female candidate.””
Where’s the bigotry here? Would it be the “soft bigotry,” to borrow a conservative catch-phrase, of her prefential looks, or the hard bigotry of… of what? Her ideology? Should her rather frightening religious beliefs not be a concern to voters considering the election of a VP to a 72 year old candidate? That’s bigotry??? Making women pay for their rape kits is fair, but questioning the beliefs of a woman whose church espouses converting the Jews, speaking in tongues, the soon coming of the rapture, etc? Has she given some speech I don;t know about in which she p[roclaimed that she would govern secularly first and foremost? And if not, then why would I be a bigot if I voted against her for her beliefs?
I don’t get it.
JMJ
Oops, forgot the second link… http://blatherwatch.blogs.com/talk_radio/2008/09/sexist-hurrican.html
JMJ
Jersey I’m not a financial dude but from what I understand it has everything to do with credit default swaps and the markets failure in pricing risk. Its not just sub prime and poor people getting into programs where they bought too much house. Highly qualified borrowers have bought too much house. It comes down to greed, a willingness to believe that real estate never looses value and an inability to price risk due to complicated derivitives spreading risk over multiple investors and packaging subprime mortgages with good credits.
“would I be a bigot if I voted against her for her beliefs?”
I don’t think so, but I think just uninformed. If you have researched HER particular congregation and it is true, then fine. But I have found that associating all denominations to be the same is way off track. I can give you examples, but you may be ahead of me and correct.
Just as we all (I think) heard stereotypes of certain races or religions when we were chillen’s, as adults we find them to be baseless and are individual choices or assessments.
Also there was some laws passed by congress ( both dems and GOP ) because there was concern about minority and lower income discrimination in home leading. While a noble effort this put many people in homes they couldn’t afford.
That was a really enjoyable read. You’re incredibly lucky to have had an opportunity like that. It really sounds like you had an awesome convention in general…
By the way, I blogrolled you over at thecollegepolitico.com
I did it because I genuinely like your site… feel free to do the same if you feel the same way about my site.
Thanks!
Dude. Hugh Hewitt is one of my heroes and the whole reason I started reading blogs before anyone else knew what they were (I even got the company I work for J.D. Power and Associates to take notice and start including them in our research [yeah, sure. I’m not that important, but I was the first one to bring it up]).
You were a guest on his show. Well, it’s true I don’t listen to every show any more and I was kind of trying to hear the convention live, but I’m still kicking myself for having missed it. If you know of an archive link to the audio I’d love to hear it. Ack. I’m not properly conveying the gigantic amount of respect I have for your accomplishment. Suffice to say, it is large.
Now I have to go back and rethink my own blog since I’m one of those link to other people kind of guys. I kind of styled my blog after littlegreenfootballs which was the first blog I really got into after Hugh talked about Charles on his show. I was even able to get in before he started having to sparingly accept new registrations. Ah, there’s the dream.
Well, that’s enough rambling. Kudos with a K2 sized K.