The Washington Post: "it would be understating things to say that McAuliffe is prone to overstating things. To deprive him of hyperbole and exaggeration would be like depriving a mathematician of numbers."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A19553-2004Jul27.htmlTerry McAuliffe, The Man Who Put the Pep in Rally
By Mark Leibovich Washington Post Staff Writer Wednesday, July 28, 2004; Page C01
There are times when Terry McAuliffe can get a tad carried away. These occur about 20 times an hour, or 80 times an hour during the Democratic National Convention, a frequency that suggests that McAuliffe does not "get" carried away but was born carried away.
"Bill Richardson is the greatest governor in the country today, maybe in the history of America," McAuliffe says to the governor of New Mexico. McAuliffe, the chairman of the Democratic National Committee, is bounding between state delegation breakfasts at the Marriott Long Wharf hotel. In McAuliffe's daily romp, this is a routine greeting.
He conveys it again four minutes later when he runs into Janet Napolitano, the governor of Arizona and "certainly the best governor serving in the United States," McAuliffe says. "Bar none."
Except Richardson, and the 20 other Democratic governors currently serving, which includes the man who is standing about 30 feet from Napolitano.
"Tom Vilsack!" McAuliffe says to the governor of Iowa. "Have you met Tom Vilsack? He is easily, easily, the best governor we have today."
"Aww shucks, Terry," Vilsack says. "I'll bet you say that to all the Democratic governors."
It would be understating things to say that McAuliffe is prone to overstating things. To deprive him of hyperbole and exaggeration would be like depriving a mathematician of numbers. In the course of a typical McAuliffe day -- which begins at 5:30 a.m. Monday and concludes at 2:30 a.m. Tuesday -- he will encounter at least five of the greatest state party chairmen in history, six of the greatest members of Congress, 12 of the greatest senators and two of our greatest former presidents (Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton). <snip>