I had the pleasure of spending the entire day on Saturday with Malachy McCourt. He was in town as part of his campaign for Governor of New York. It was a fascinating day. We started off campaigning at Rochester's Public Market. It was cold, windy & rainy and this 70-something-year-old man was there talking to people for 4 freakin hours. He was awesome. In the meantime, the wife of The War Criminal was in town and all the media covered that. We called all the TV stations and the local corporate rag - all of them gave us the yada, yada, yada and blew Malachy off.

The corporate party gubernatorial candidates fart and news crews go running - towards them. Here's a guy, spending his own money, barnstorming the state by car, standing in the rain to talk to people...to actually talk to them, not just shake their hand for a photo op, and the media ignores him. TV stations won't include him in debates.

It's pretty simple...you get on the line, you get in the debates and on TV. Most people have no freakin idea what it's like to run for office - especially as a non-bought candidate. There are a million more hoops you have to jump through. For me, it brings nothing but contempt for those in the media and any individuals who don't recognize the work it takes.

Anyway, after a break, he and his running-mate, who was also in town (Alison Duncan), performed for a ridiculously small group of people in a fundraiser that didn't break even. There were a few reasons for the low turnout - despite the press releases, only one publication would put the gig on it's calendar; even though hundreds of postcards were sent out to local Greens, none of them came; various progressives were sent personal e-invitations, but they couldn't be bothered.

And it's too bad because they missed a pretty good show. Listen to this guy talk and you'll vote for him, too. I've touted Vin Scelsa's radio show Idiot's Delight before. Well, Malachy was on a few weeks ago. You can listen to it here. (streamed)

Hell, throw the campaign a few bucks. You can do it via the campaign website.

Oh yeah, and he's the voice of both guys in the Guiness commercials - brilliant!

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