The Week Of Living Dangerously
So it's been a long, long fucking week. Friday and Saturday I went to my cousin Garret's wedding in Two Rivers with Ethan, which was fun. I danced a lot with my seven-year-old cousin Kyle. Then on Monday I went home to Eau Claire so I could attend the Springsteen/REM/John Fogerty/Neil Young concert in Minneapolis, which rocked so much, particularly REM. I got home on Wednesday, and left on Thursday for the presidential debate in St. Louis.
The debate experience was excellent. All the reporters were crammed into a college gym, talking to each other, interviewing various pols at the front of the room, watching the Red Sox game, arguing with their counterparts from rival cities. I met a Sox fan who worked for the New York Post, which was hilarious. There was also, miracle of miracles, an open bar, because the debate was kindly sponsored by Budweiser. They tested out these new 16-oz aluminum bottles on us, which were well-received.
As it turned out, we received tickets to get into the debate itself, which was pretty neat. On TV you can't tell how staged everything is - the TV sets, the people arguing over the position of the microphones, etc. I thought Kerry won slightly. The only really excited moment of the debate, aside from Bush saying "Need some wood?" which was just creepy, was when Bush freaked out in the beginning and started yelling about Tony Blair and Poland again.
After the debate, we went out and interviewed a bunch of people in the press room. Here's a complete list of people I talked to and people I saw:
Talked to:
Terry McAuliffe (for quite a while. Also he winked at me, which was disturbing.)
Christy Gephardt
Harold Ford Jr.
Someone named Secretary Slater, who I guess is a cabinet person of some sort
Ed Helms of the Daily Show
Saw:
Brian Williams
Tim Russert
Chris Matthews
Karl Rove
Squinty eyed Fox News creep
Squinty eyed CNN creep
Hillary Clinton
Bob Kerrey
Madeleine Albright
So that's that. In other news, I've been getting random accolades for my State Journal articles, and the past is never that far behind and I get the feeling it's going to bite me in the ass in the near future.
The debate experience was excellent. All the reporters were crammed into a college gym, talking to each other, interviewing various pols at the front of the room, watching the Red Sox game, arguing with their counterparts from rival cities. I met a Sox fan who worked for the New York Post, which was hilarious. There was also, miracle of miracles, an open bar, because the debate was kindly sponsored by Budweiser. They tested out these new 16-oz aluminum bottles on us, which were well-received.
As it turned out, we received tickets to get into the debate itself, which was pretty neat. On TV you can't tell how staged everything is - the TV sets, the people arguing over the position of the microphones, etc. I thought Kerry won slightly. The only really excited moment of the debate, aside from Bush saying "Need some wood?" which was just creepy, was when Bush freaked out in the beginning and started yelling about Tony Blair and Poland again.
After the debate, we went out and interviewed a bunch of people in the press room. Here's a complete list of people I talked to and people I saw:
Talked to:
Terry McAuliffe (for quite a while. Also he winked at me, which was disturbing.)
Christy Gephardt
Harold Ford Jr.
Someone named Secretary Slater, who I guess is a cabinet person of some sort
Ed Helms of the Daily Show
Saw:
Brian Williams
Tim Russert
Chris Matthews
Karl Rove
Squinty eyed Fox News creep
Squinty eyed CNN creep
Hillary Clinton
Bob Kerrey
Madeleine Albright
So that's that. In other news, I've been getting random accolades for my State Journal articles, and the past is never that far behind and I get the feeling it's going to bite me in the ass in the near future.