Sunday afternoon was lovely, as Berkeley afternoons in the spring often are, and like another 200 or so lovely Berkeley residents we attended a lovely garden party at a lovely home in one of Berkeley’s loveliest (and most expensive) neighborhoods. The purpose of the event was to raise money for Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry, and since all of us in Berkeley are pretty smart and know that we’re really at the water’s edge this time, we were all on our very best behavior. Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich, who’s been wintering in Berkeley, gave a stirring speech, complete with convincing pragmatic answers to a few challenging questions about Kerry’s somewhat pallid campaign to date. A pitch was made, with the comment that Marin Republicans has already raised, was it $80k, for Kerry at one party, and couldn’t Berkeley Democrats do as well? Eyeballing the crowd, with some knowledge of the net worth of some attendees from Piedmont, the goal seemed possible. Checks and credit cards were accepted. Everyone went home smiling: a lovely event.
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