Jeff Greenfield Might Be Obsessed with Alternative Realities

Jeff Greenfield remarked how wonderful it was to visit Imus in studio this morning, rather than sitting at home with a cup of coffee and doing his interview by phone. Imus swiftly disabused him of this sentiment, listing the varied reasons why he prefers his guests not show up in person.
 
“We don’t have to send somebody down to the lobby; we don’t have to feed them; they’re not hitting on Carley,” he explained, then promised Greenfield, who has been appearing on this show for at least 25 years, “But you’re different.”
 
Aside from his day job as a senior political correspondent for CBS News, Greenfield is the author of the recently published book, Then Everything Changed, in which he creates alternative histories of American politics.
 
Greenfield elaborated, “What I tried to do here was take things that almost happened, that came within a whisper of happening—like John Kennedy being blown up in Palm Beach before he ever got to be President, or Bobby living—and saying, if that tiny little twist of fate happens, not something dramatic or wild: watch.”
 
Ever the scholar, Greenfield did more than just speculate about three “what if?” situations, which include the aforementioned JFK and RFK stories, as well as a scenario where Gerald Ford defeats Jimmy Carter in 1976. “I interviewed a lot of people, read a lot of memoirs and oral histories, and tried to make a plausible case,” he said.
 
As he was explaining the amount of work he put into Then Everything Changed, Imus began coughing violently in the background, making Greenfield pause and making Imus annoyed. “You’re a professional,” he instructed his guest. “When the host is dying, you simply keep talking.”
 
So, he did. “I wanted to be able to say, ‘Yeah, I invented it, but before you think it couldn’t have happened—look at this,’” Greenfield said. “Look at the real history. That’s the part that made the writing of this so much fun.”
 
Apart from receiving what he called “massive adulation” about Then Everything Changed, Greenfield has also been pressed on why he did not rehash what might have happened if Al Gore had defeated George Bush in 2000.
 
“Truth be told, I’m working on that,” he said, noting that his iteration does not presume a different outcome in Palm Beach County, Florida. “I have a very different way of changing history and, I hope, an eye-opening way.”
 
Greenfield is apparently having so much fun re-writing history that he published an article in the current issue of Sports Illustrated magazine about what might have happened in 2003 if the now notorious Bartman had never interfered with a foul ball, and the White Sox had made it to the World Series against the Yankees that year.
 
“Boastfully, it’s funny,” Greenfield said. “Because it also has a direct impact on the career of an Illinois, African-American state senator with designs on higher office.”
 
And what of that former State Senator’s announcement today that he would seek reelection as President of the United States in 2012? “As a news story,” Greenfield said, “It would have been much more interesting if he had said, ‘I’ve had enough.’”
 
Sounds like a potential installment for “Then Everything Changed…Again.”
 
-Julie Kanfer