The Washington Post met the Huffington Post on Sunday -- in the "Date Lab" feature in The Washington Post Magazine. Huff-Po political reporter Laura Bassett went on a blind date with lawyer Eli Savit.
In a post-article interview with the blog Fishbowl DC, Bassett suggested that her date’s unsuitably non-feminist view of ObamaCare’s birth control mandate fizzled any sexual attraction that may have come about:
You mentioned that there were some arguments related to politics over the course of the evening. Did it get tense? What were the arguments over?
It didn’t get that tense. We were arguing over whether it was okay for the Obama administration to require employers to pay for birth control. You know, typical first date getting-to-know-you banter.
Was there ANY sexual attraction between the two of you?
No, probably because of the circumstances.
In the WashPost piece, the daters seemed to beat around the bush a little more:
Laura: We talked a lot about politics, which is something I try to stay away from on first dates because I work in politics. And we ended up getting into a bit of an argument about things that are happening — we talked about the contraception debate. It got kinda heated. I was a little surprised. I guess I had pegged him [as] just kind of like a beefy, basketball-playing guy. I wasn’t expecting him to know so much about women’s issues.
Eli: As the conversation really got flowing, it became apparent that we not only had things to talk about, but that we were also interested in what the other person had to say.
That sounds like euphemistic language for "she was really interested in how I could be such a male chauvinist pig." Bassett then says she really likes less political, "artsier" guys. She even explains how the blind date led her back to another guy. Ouch. These are the risks of blind-dating for a newspaper article.
Perhaps Eli would have been more prepared for blind-date debate by reading Bassett articles like the Catholic-bishop trashing "The Men Behind The War On Women."
