the reason that i do town meetings and the reason why meetingselm's holds like this, i think there is an understanding that the way we do politics in this country, very often, is basically not the right way. the smartest guy in the world cannot talk about major problems facing this country in a five-second soundbite. the media does a disservice to us and our nation when they look at politics as an "american idol" show. win?s going to who is up-to-date? who is down tomorrow? the problems are serious. if we take our responsibility seriously as american citizens, we need to talk about the real issues, respect each other's different points of view, and learn from each other. you a begin by telling little bit about myself and about my political history, which is very different from most folks in the united states senate. life living iny brooklyn, new york. heard of that town, south of here. [laughter] dad was a paint salesman. that is what he did his whole life. he came to america from poland at the age of 17. without a nickel in his pocket. his life with a lot more than that. he worked ve