TMM's Rat Race
Sorry I couldn't catch up with you yesterday. We were running around. I'm not going to lie to you -- certain frontrunning presidential candidates were in town with certain people, who decided to endorse them and we were trying to, you know, work some magic. The sparkle dust hasn't worked yet. (I am sure I am one of a select group of 20,000 people who would like those interviews.)
Then, we ran up to Capitol Hill to catch up with a Democratic leader to discuss the State of the Union speech. You'll remember we had White House Counselor Ed Gillespie on yesterday to preview the speech; we had on House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-SC) today.
We talked to Gillespie yesterday because it's custom for the White House to start offering briefings throughout the day to key groups -- congressional leaders get a briefing, the big cheese news anchors get a briefing at the White House (never been invited to that, harrumph! ... I wonder if they get lunch). When I was a White House correspondent (for the Wall Street Journal), it was actually pretty stressful. We would have to go and physically pick-up an embargoed (translation: I'll tell you, but don't tell anybody else until I say so) copy of the speech at about 4 p.m., RUN back to the office and make copies for everybody on "beats" (subject areas assigned to reporters) so they could check it out. Some of our more anxious colleagues would literally wait by the copier. ... Do they still do that? Why not just hit a button and e-mail it? Come to think of it, we had e-mail then, too, so I wonder why they did it that way.
Anyway, this is a big-time ritual here in the Washington press corp. And I know that by the time you read this, you will have heard hours of coverage by everybody.
So why don't we skip it?
Because it's the blueprint for what the administration wants to accomplish in the year ahead, and because we are able to add the point of view of someone you don't hear from all the time. I know that Mr. Clyburn has been much in the news because of the recent South Carolina primary, but a political campaign is one thing and governance is another (sort of). When we can get a top ranking member of the opposition party -- or a top White House aide -- to address plans for governance, I think we should.
Plus, we were VERY happy to get a hold of Ambassador Jendayi Frazer. She was only back here in the U.S. for a few days -- in between a trip to Kenya, to see if she could help resolve the political crisis there, and a trip to Addis Ababa, for the African Union Summit. We heard her take on the crisis in Kenya, and a preview of President's upcoming trip to Africa.
Finally, the Mochas! No shame in admitting that the idea for today's segment came from a listener -- two, in fact. One wanted ideas on resources to help teach Black History (especially to younger children), and the other recently discovered some products on the market that she thought might be effective teaching tools. ... Have you heard of these dolls?
So, thanks for the great ideas and, please, keep sending them our way.
3:30 PM ET | 01-29-2008 | permalink
