We can die happy now: An interview with Anderson Cooper

Saucy, sassy and all-around fabulous Street editor and DP columnist Julie Steinberg managed to score an interview with our crush of crushes, Anderson Cooper, when he was on campus yesterday.  Here’s what he had to say.

UTB: What was your favorite story to report or break?
AC360: Hurricane Katrina was a really clear instance where authorities weren’t reporting what was happening on the ground. What the authorities were saying was plainly different than what was actually happening. There was a great need for reporters on the ground.

UTB: What the most physically or emotionally challenging story you’ve ever done?
AC360: I spent three years reporting in Somalia and Rwanda. I was there for the famine in Somalia and the genocide in Rwanda — those two places had the most impact.

UTB: If you hosted a dinner party, which three literary or historical figures would you invite?
AC360: I’m a bit of a social recluse, so it would probably be hard to have a dinner party, and I also don’t cook, so it would be a disastrous dinner party.
UTB: OK, what about a tea party?
AC360: Tea party I could do. Hmm, that’s a tricky question. I would invite Joseph Conrad, Mark Twain and James Joyce.

UTB: Would you ever go back to work for the CIA?
AC360: Not in a million years. I had a summer internship there, and I didn’t choose to work there then, so I wouldn’t do it now.

UTB: Would you ever consider running for president? Maybe in 2012? Or, how about now?
AC360: Never. I would be a terrible politician. It’s hard to speak with your heart when there are so many competing interests.