This post is less to make me seem like a showboat and more to get on paper my memories of covering Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton during the 2008 election. And I don't really care if you think I'm showing off. Maybe I am-it's really freakin' cool to cover a presidential candidate. Even cooler to cover a sitting president, which I'll expound on in a separate post. And the coolest visitor was, of course, Ted "Sam Malone" Danson.
The Democratic primary dragged on a lot longer than many wanted or anticipated. Mostly because Hillary would not give up. I gots to give props to my soul sister not only cause she was representing the XY sisters but because the primary season went on long enough to make Indiana important.
I was the education reporter at The Journal Gazette in Fort Wayne, Ind. when Obama and Clinton started realizing they had to start kissing some Hoosier ass to get some electoral votes. Fort Wayne is Indiana's second largest city, so it wasn't a stretch for them to pass through. Northeast Indiana played host to not only Barack and Hilary but Bill Clinton, Chelsea Clinton, Michelle Obama and Ted Danson (besties with the Clinton's).
I had the opportunity to cover Hillary, Obama and Ted.
Hillary: She chose a tiny diner as the venue, which maybe fed into her goal of seeming like a "small town gal" but made it very difficult for the visitors and the media. I went to the event with two other reporters and got the lucky assignment of covering the crowd outside of the diner. We arrived a couple hours before she was even scheduled to arrive and while the other two reporters made themselves at home at Sara's Family Restaurant, I was stuck outside in 40-degree, windy weather. But I didn't care. I got to see the Secret Service bring the dogs in to sweep the restaurant; listened to the cops' walkie talkies for updates on her arrival; and saw a local TV anchor pull his compact out and put makeup on. About 600 people crowded in the small parking lot outside the restaurant, waiting for a chance to get a glimpse of Hillary. She was about an hour late (not surprising based on what I've heard about the Clinton's-Bill is supposedly worse) and prior to entering the restaurant, she stopped on a stage outside to give a five-minute speech. So I got to see her from afar. She's short. If you want to read the story that came out of this day: http://www.journalgazette.net/article/20080329/LOCAL/803290319.
Obama: He held a rally at a Fort Wayne high school and nearly 3,000 people showed up. Everything you've heard about the energy that this guy created during the campaign-it's even bigger in person. That gym was electric that day. People were chanting and singing and cheering for him even before he entered the room. I had heard before he took the stage, he was shooting hoops outside. People went absolutely bonkers for him. I wasn't in the restaurant when Hillary entered, but I was outside with a larger crowd, and the energy at the Obama rally vs. her event was incomparable. This time, I got to see the national press corps that traveled with him, making me uber jealous. An interesting fact: if you ever see a candidate on TV and there's people sitting in bleachers behind them, they are hand-picked by the candidate's handlers. It looked like they tried to get a diverse batch of people. I don't know how else to say it other than it was really cool to be a part of such a magnificent event.
Danson: Now we're speakin' my language. Yeah, I can write political stories, but my home is with the celebs. Danson visited a neighborhood Fort Wayne bar called The Green Frog to stump for Hillary. It was a Saturday, and I fought tooth and nail to get the assignment. The Green Frog really is Fort Wayne's version of Cheers. The mayor's wife owns it and most of the people who hang out there are regulars. Danson arrived early, said a few words, confirmed he'd be on "Damages" again then posed for pictures. He agreed to do a one-on-one interview with me outside so we talked for about 10 minutes. You'd be able to hear it if The Journal Gazette maintained any type of decent website (I recorded it and posted it online with the story: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:XhvfyOWimfkJ:www.journalgazette.net/apps/pbcs.dll/article%3FAID%3D/20080420/LOCAL08/804200323/1002/LOCAL+kelly+soderlund+ted+danson&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us).
