What a week!
it’s sunday evening at 1800 (military time is so exact. i love it!) and i have just awakened. i fell asleep at 1800 on friday evening and haven’t been awake since. it was such a week, so much going on, history made, short nights, long days and lots of excitement. in short, it was the kind of week we live for.
i have to tell you that when you host a morning news program, there’s nothing as exciting (and taxing) as a big election. you spend alot of time (in this case two years) building up to it, finding the right interviews, making sure they come on, and coaxing them to give you as much insight as possible in a limited amount of time. everyone on the team pushes everyone they know to get the interviews with the big names. i’m not sure (because i can’t listen to every show) but i doubt any other k.c. radio program had obama, mccain and biden as often as we did on kansas city’s morning news (i’m sure everyone had palin on as often as we did).
you work to make sure you cover both sides of an issue and both candidates in a race and you answer the letters accusing you of being biased one way or the other.
then the day before comes and the tension mounts. every campaign is calling trying to book that one person that will resonate most with listeners. the day of, things start to cook. trouble at the polls, some voter registries get delivered to the wrong precincts (anybody lose a gig over that one??), long lines and overall excitement all-around. and then at 2200 hours kc time on tuesday night, history.
wednesday, the analysis continues. why did mccain lose? what do people think of the winner? what was the role of race in the race? then the rumors: a national magazine says palin can’t spell her own name and doesn’t know how to make a grilled cheese. at least south park did what it does best.
by the end of the week, heck, by the end of his victory speech, the prez-elect was trying to lower expectations, find his appointees (and balance “change” with the apparent desire to pick “insiders”) and deal with the economy without any power to actually do so. saturday night live slides back into obscurity by playing a rerun. and columnists look ahead to p.e. obama’s first visit to 1600 pa av since winning by recounting his first visit to the white house (what do people have against hand sanitizer? it’s washington. i’d have an aide at the ready with a squirt too!).
at the end of it all, we get a new president. a new approach. new stories.
and if the new presidential administration fails to provide enough interesting content (which i doubt will be the case), no doubt local politics will (as that funky volunteer ordinance proved on friday).
rock’n'roll