Street: Who would be your ideal president? Charles Gray: A really humble person who would cut spending and cut taxes, and who had the values to back it up. I think Reagan had a lot of those, but he couldn’t cut spending because Congress was difficult with him. He tried his best. A person I really like from today is Mitch Daniels, the Governor of Indiana.
Street: What’s the biggest misconception people have about Republicans? CG: I think the greatest misconception is that we aren’t open and we aren’t inclusive, and that’s very dangerous for the party. But that’s a misconception. You can see from everyone from Herman Cain to J. C. Watts that we’re very inclusive.
Street: If you had a pet elephant, what would you name it? CG: I would definitely name him Ronald Reagan, after the spirit of the Republican party.
Street: Man, we have a big Reagan fan here. Have you ever seen one of his movies? CG: Well, I met him once in 1994. I was only four, but I remember my dad handing me to him.
Street: What’s your secret talent? CG: Some people wouldn’t call it a talent, but I love doing stand–up comedy.
Street: What’s one of your best bits? CG: It’s probably on hyphenated names. I go through a sequence of hyphenated names. The thing about hyphenated names is eventually, if the hyphenated name gets passed down, and if the person hyphenates it again, and if the next person hyphenates it again, then you’re going to have, like, five hyphenated names. So I go through that… anyway, they stopped having me do stand–up after a while.
Street: What is your obsession? CG: C–Span. I watch C–Span endlessly. I have this thing called — I call it — um, well, on Friday, basically, I take a… I don’t know if you’ve done this before, but I get a pot, and I put water in the pot, and then I put the pot with the aforementioned water on a stove, and after about five minutes, you know, it’s boiling. Then I take out hot dogs, and I put hot dogs in the pot, wait five minutes, and then I’m done. And then I put the aforementioned hot dogs in hot dog buns. And then I go downstairs to watch C–Span. That’s my Friday night.
Street: What does your PennCard look like? CG: I have on a hoodie, and my smile is just like… I don’t know. I apologize for the hoodie. Because it’s not very formal, not very fashion forward.
Street: What’s your guilty pleasure? CG: Well, I spend a lot of time watching C–Span. I have that on while I’m eating or writing papers. It definitely distracts me but it's amazing!
Street: Do you have C–Span parties with your friends? CG: You know, I’ve tried to do that.
Street: You haven’t found your kindred spirit? CG: I’m still looking.
