E.J. Becker

first off, if you missed any of our day at the dole broadcast, you can find pictures and podcasts on our rundown page.

when you take the entire show on the road, there’s alot of behind the scenes stuff that makes the show interesting.  i can’t possibly remember it all so here are some of the highlights from our 20 hours in lawrence and our visit to the bi-partisan dole institute of politics.

-bill lacy has a picture hanging in his office where he’s talking to ronald reagan on air force one.  pretty cool.

-ellen took part in a media panel in front of about 100 people on wednesday night.  the dinner that preceded split 30 of us up among 5 tables and dole staffers led discussions about the media and the race.  each table had a nice mix of media folks, staff, donors and students. pretty cool stuff.  and ku’s catering’s good too.

-ray strother is the democratic fellow at the dole this semester and told us at dinner that the way obama has run this election will change elections forever.  his use of technology will forever change elections from presidential races all the way down to dog-catcher.

-senator bob dole never threw anything away.  they have a white glove tour at the dole that displays every trinket, gift, paper and thing that he ever received.

-mary matalin is a huge fan of bob dole.  and she does a great interview while travelling on a train between new york and washington.

-at least one of the ku students who took part in our town hall discussion is now a dedicated listener.  (thanks annie.)

-mark can fly the plane from an hour away and we still hear him jump up and down and flail about when he wants us to break and go to commercial.

-and the dole institute puts on a good breakfast.  the cheesey potatoes and gravy were great.

rock’n'roll

behind the scenes bill lacy, breakfast, dole institute, e.j. and ellen, ku, mary matalin, politics, ray strother

You can tell it’s getting close to the big day.  More commercials than you can count. Constant talk about polls.  And the candidates are talking to Kansas City’s Morning News.

All week we’re talking to the folks in the big races in KS and MO, giving each 5 minutes to answer questions in as much or as little detail as they choose.  On Monday, Kenny Hulshof joined us for 5 minutes.  It was the first time I’ve interviewed him.  Clear, concise and had a good grasp of the time available to him.  I was disappointed that Jay Nixon did not respond to our invitation.

Today, Jim Slattery got outta bed and was in studio 10 minutes after the show started to take questions.  I was impressed…i don’t expect most folks to be bright-eyed and bushy-tailed that early in the morning, but he was.  not sure he liked it when ellen brought up the whole urination thing, but hey…it was his commercial.

senator pat roberts joined us just after 6.  he, like slattery, gives a good interview (as you’d expect) and i don’t think there were any surprises…no “spread the wealth around” moments.

still to come this week, boyda/jenkins, graves/barnes and moore/jordan.

you can hear our interviews with the candidates here.

rock’n'roll

behind the scenes e.j. and ellen, election 2008, kansas senate, roberts, slattery, urination