Our program for Thursday, March 10th is a repeat of my October 2010 interview with David Broder, who died Wednesday at age 81 in Arlington, Virginia. A Pulitzer Prize-winning political columnist for the Washington Post, David was the first interview guest when our program debuted on October 4, 2004. He gave The Bob Edwards Show instant credibility. Our conversations continued each week until David became ill in December.
He was tall and slim and had amazing posture. David Broder didn't slouch or bend over like some of us of a certain height and age -- he sat straight and walked tall. I mention that because he wrote as straight as he stood. He was a journalist of the old school, incapable of purple prose or leaving political fingerprints on his copy. One reporter called him "relentlessly centrist." In the conversations we had each week, I'd try to provoke him into being a bit more partisan. He knew exactly what I was doing and never took the bait. Maybe the most remarkable thing about David is that he covered politics for nearly 60 years and never became a cynic. And he was from Chicago!
