Re: Who are you?

Description: Kuhn hails from a long line of New Yorkers who wanted to get out of New York.

Question: Who are you?

My name is David Paul Kuhn.  I’m a Senior Political Writer with Politico.com.  And I’m also the author of “The Neglected Voter: White Men and the Democratic Dilemma”. Most of my youth was spent in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.  I come from a long family of New Yorkers.  I’m the fifth generation in this city of my family, possibly the sixth generation on one side.  And my father especially was a New Yorker who wanted to get out of . . . raise his kids outside New York.  And when I was in high school I would come here all the time.  I spent many summers in New York City, and I always wanted to move here right away.  And so I was really intent on going to college here.  But because my mom taught at the medical college in Wisconsin as a geneticist, all Wisconsin state schools were free.  And at the time I wanted . . . I didn’t wanna stay in Wisconsin, but it shaped me immeasurably to have stayed in Wisconsin through college because in a deep respect, I understand this country in a way I never could have if I was raised in the city, as much as I love the city; and especially because I went to college there, because they’re such formidable years between 18 and 22.  So I think it really made me understand this country far better.  Also one of my majors was World Religions, so I actually lectured the 101 Religions course which everyone would take.  Because if you were a religious Christian, you’d have to take that to take New Testament courses.  And if you were like a philosophy major and interested in like Zen Buddhism, you had to take that to take any Zen Buddhism courses.  So you would get this amazing mix of students, at least half of which were truly Bible belt, bedrock Christians.  And it’s an entirely massive slice of America I never would have understood if I would have simply stayed here. 

Question: How did you know you wanted to be a journalist?

Transcript: I did at a pretty young age.  It’s very cliché.  I was one of the many people who saw “All the President’s Men” when I was . . . I had to take a summer school course because my parents were academics and I was a very . . . I misbehaved a lot as a boy.  I didn’t take school too seriously.  I took my friends more seriously and sports.  And my parents made me take summer school, so I was like, “Okay, I’ll take journalism.”  And I do think I saw “All the President’s Men”, and I got this concept that I could challenge authority for a living, you know?  And that was, you know, now some 15 years ago if not longer.  And of course, you know, one shifts.  I’m not trying to be Bob Woodward anymore.  But you know you do . . . I do think that I, like a lot of reporters, which is often I think also misunderstood by the general public, went into it with those sort of quixotic intentions.  So it’s . . . You know from a very early age I wanted to be a reporter.  Before that I wanted to be a top gun pilot; a Wall Street broker, I think.  Basically based on movies I would shift my career ambitions.

Recorded on: 2/5/08