AMBRIDGE - Fresh from an interview with Playboy magazine that got him into trouble in his home state of Minnesota, Governor Jesse Ventura came to Harvard yesterday to talk politics, meet the football team, and berate the news media.
The former Navy SEAL and professional wrestler fielded questions from faculty and students and didn't back down from the interview, in which he attacked organized religion and said fat people are overweight because they ''can't push away from the table.''
Ventura said he never expected one day to come to the Ivy League school.
''When you grow up in southern Minnesota, you only hear about Harvard,'' Ventura said, adding later that ''the American dream lives because Jesse Ventura is at Harvard.''
For Ventura, 48, it was mostly business - talking about politics.
He even gave a pep talk to the Harvard football team, saying he expected to find a not-so-tough-outfit. Ventura recalled his father saying: ''Those teams out there in the Ivy League, we got high school teams that could beat 'em.'' But Ventura said he was impressed.
In a session with a roomful of students, reporters were kicked out after 10 minutes.
''I thought he did a very good job explaining his views,'' said Sarah Melvoin, 21, a senior from Boston. ''I was simply interested in what he had to say.''
At a news conference, Ventura pulled out a mangled photocopy of the Playboy interview and said many of his quotes were fragments of what he actually said.
Ventura said he is doing nearly 1,000 interviews a year. The Playboy interview, he said, was one of many.
''I'm human,'' he said. ''You got good days. You got bad days.''
He then appeared live on CNBC's ''Hardball with Chris Matthews,'' where Ventura talked at length on the Vietnam War and the assassination of John F. Kennedy before a crowd estimated at around 800.
Ventura, who signed copies of Playboy after an evening forum with students, told Harvard undergraduates he says what he feels and he doesn't worry about being politically incorrect.
''I'm not afraid to speak my mind,'' Ventura said.
Unlike most politicians, Ventura said he can say what he wants because he isn't focused on reelection.
''If I don't get reelected that's fine,'' he said. ''I'll go back to the private sector.''
Some students said they found Ventura's candor refreshing.
''I thought it was admirable that he could speak his mind freely without worrying what people think,'' said Brandon Fail, 18.
Material from Associated Press was used in this report.
