KARLO Dizon may be bold enough to challenge Madeleine Bordallo in a Democratic primary and persistently call her out to a public debate, but he was timid and respectful when he approached her during the Philippine Independence Day vin d’ honneur at the Westin Resort Hotel on Tuesday night.

My job as a nosy newspaper woman (excuse the redundancy) was to eavesdrop and capture the awkward moment.

“Hi, congresswoman,” Dizon said shyly.

“Hi, how are you?” Bordallo asked.

“Been busy,” he replied.

“How’s your campaign going?” she asked.

“It’s good. I’ve been getting a lot of exposure,” Dizon said.

“That’s good. I hope you will consider working with us after this,” Bordallo said. (Translation: Dream on. This race is over before it even begins. This job is mine).

“We’ll see what happens,” Dizon smiled. (Translation: Don’t be too cocky.)

The cordial exchange of pleasantries ended pretty much on that note. No ambush debate occurred but it was interesting to watch. It was picture-perfect – an image of stark contrast.

Bordallo is a 79-year-old entrenched politician with a well-funded campaign and strong political machinery that kept her in Congress for a decade, on top of her long previous political career in local politics.

The 27-year-old Dizon is an infant in politics with stardust on his forehead, who depends on the support of small donors, help from his friends and the cheering from the Dededo bloc. His campaign is being run by a small group of equally smart, sharp and highly educated idealistic young folks from his childhood days.

The story of David and Goliath never loses its appeal. It’s difficult to be indifferent.

Bordallo has a record of hits and misses during the decade she has been in Congress. She had been running uncontested in Democratic primaries, except in 2008 when she was challenged by Jonathan Blas Diaz. Her successful re-election bids somehow spoke of her constituents’ general satisfaction with her representation of Guam in the nation’s capital. But her lack of success with war reparations, the scaled down military buildup and the stalled China visa waiver program are beginning to take their toll on her magic. Fairly or unfairly, she is taking the heat for these failures, and the September primary will be a new referendum on her leadership. Her critics say, “It’s time for a change.”

Hence the sudden curiosity when one Karlo Dizon sprang out of nowhere in an Avenger-like fashion.

Karlo who? Running for what?

If educational achievement matters, it would be hard not to pay attention to this young Ivy Leaguer, who grew up in Bataan, a rural province in the Philippines. He earned his bachelor’s in political science from Yale University and a master’s in comparative politics from the London School of Economics. He interned at the White House and the UK House of Commons.

Ah, so young; so inexperienced. But it is in fact his youth and freshness that bring novelty and draw mixed reactions to his campaign.

Supporters cheer for him. The cynics mock his guts. Political pundits watch him with curiosity. The Machiavellis monitor his campaign with amazement and amusement, at times winking at one another and saying, “He will learn.”

“I realized that many others shared this frustration, but also that there was a feeling of hope that was prevalent as well: the hope that we can do better, better than the politics of empty promises – the politics of the past; better than politics focused on personal alliances and rivalries,” Dizon said during the launch of his campaign. “But most of all, [I realized] that we can do better than the politics of dependence – a politics that has no trust and no faith in our ability to take control of our own economy and our capacity to stand on our own feet.”

The promise of “hope” and “change” – real or illusory – and the hunger for fresh ideas are mainstay clichés in elections. You can be as skeptical as you want, but the charm of youthful idealism never fades.