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It hardly strikes me as strange anymore that I get up in the morning in a hotel, then ride in a car to a convention center where I walk amongst buttoned-up people applauding people who look exactly like themselves.

Day 2 of the RNC was essentially Day 1 since the actual Day 1 was just people saying “Worry about the hurricane.” And Day 1 of these things tend to be slow, and it was.

I found myself standing in front of Bush the Former — he seems far more comptentent to me now then he did when I was in college, now that I’ve seen his son. Didn’t [...]

5 Comments | Tags: aol, conventions, politics, republican national convention, rnc, work

I don’t know if it’s the hurricane taking everyone’s attention, or if it’s because I’ve gotten used to the whole convention circuit, but so far the RNC is boring! If it wasn’t for the awesomely interesting pick of Sarah Palin I’d be asleep.

Veteran reporters say the RNC is always more organized than the DNC. I haven’t noticed that in particular except that the venue (the XL Center in St. Paul) seems to be better suited. More space in the arena, and we have real bathrooms right across the hall from our space. Also, the press is in a building connected to arena so I can get over to the action [...]

1 Comment | Tags: aol, conventions, politics, republican national convention, rnc, work

So Sarah Palin’s daughter is apparently pregnant RIGHT NOW and mother Palin’s fifth child seems to indeed be hers. So my last post was wrong — and I have officially entered the world of insane, half-cocked political bloggers. Of course it was Reuters who put me in my place.

6 Comments | Tags: insanity, politics, reuters, sarah palin

At work, Mo Rocca is seriously enthusiastic about the drama of the campaign. I default to a “everyone is corrupt and there’s no point in believing in anything” posture that makes it tough to get invested, but his attitude is infectious. We shot a few man-on-the-street pieces in Tompkins Square Park on Monday that I really liked, including one where Mo pointed out the uselessness of buzzwords by walking up to people and asking without context “Change or experience?”

But while shooting that piece, we had this pretty adorable encounter of a father trying to get his son to say “Change” (while his son drove his toy Cadillac Escalade). Unfortunately (or for the sake of cuteness, fortunately) the son simply [...]

2 Comments | Tags: mo rocca, politics, videos, work