Unlike Keyes, Forbes spurns mosh pit leap
By Associated Press, 02/01/00 MANCHESTER, N.H. -- Unlike Alan Keyes, who jumped into a mosh pit earlier in the presidential campaign, Steve Forbes made it clear Tuesday that moshing isn't his thing.
A crowd of people arrived outside radio station WGIR while Forbes was being interviewed for a show and began jumping around, banging into each other and chanting Forbes' name. The Republican hopeful evaded them by slipping out a side door and onto his campaign bus. Behind the moshing was political satirist and filmmaker Michael Moore, who persuaded Keyes to dive into a mosh pit on the eve of the Iowa caucuses by promising the endorsement of his cable television program, "The Awful Truth." The two crossed paths as Forbes was trying to leave the station. "You know, we have a mosh pit outside and we got Mr. Keyes to jump in," Moore told Forbes. "We'll endorse you if you'll jump into the mosh pit. No favors, no money exchanged. Nothing. Get in the pit and you are our man. We'll take our endorsement away from Keyes and give it to you." "Well, now this is quite something," Forbes said. "You endorsed Alan Keyes but now for political expediency -- I'm shocked -- you're going to take the endorsement away? ... That sounds like Clinton spin." Moore later said he hoped other candidates would "dive in for democracy and body surf the electorate," because he didn't want his show to endorse Keyes in the New Hampshire primary. At another campaign stop, Forbes, a multi-millionaire publisher known for his sometimes stiff persona, joked as though he had seriously considered moshing. "Mr. Moore doesn't keep his word. I was shocked to hear he had said to Alan Keyes he would endorse Alan Keyes if Alan went in the mosh pit," Forbes said. "Then he withdrew the endorsement, so he's like a politician: He makes a pledge and then he doesn't keep it. So I can't trust the man." Moore responded, "If he doesn't get in the mosh pit, we're going to dog him all over the state until he does." "I've made a very generous offer to Mr. Forbes -- to hold his wallet while he gets in the pit," Moore joked. |