congratulations on your election. i hope that i speak for all of our listeners at kansas city’s morning news when i say we wish you the best of luck, that we have high hopes for you, that we demand much from the person who sits in the oval office, and that we want you to succeed.

you’ve promised quite a bit and have a rocky road ahead of you. you will deal with the economy, our health and safety, and on occasion, politics too (insert ‘mike shanin rimshot’). and those are just some of the challenges we know about at this point.

you’ve told us there is no liberal america and no conservative america — just the united states of america. you’ve implied as much when it comes to race and the other issues that too often divide us. you’ve talked change and hope. you’ve raised our expectations and tried to temper them too. your candidacy has inspired millions to get involved in a political process we so cherish. and you have tried to give us hope that we can be better, that we will be better in the days and years ahead.

and on the flipside, you have inspired speculation about your political leanings, questions about from where on the spectrum you will actually rule and about whether we ever will actually figure out what you stand for.

we all have political leanings (and just so you know, if you read some of the emails that ellen and i get, we’re more liberal than you supposedly are) but i promise not to let them affect my views as you begin the tough task ahead…and i mean that as a citizen, not as a radio host (where today it’s part of my job to remain neutral). i believe something that we have heard perhaps more following this election than any other in recent memory: i am an american and you are (will be) my president. if you need my help, you call and i will be there for you. that’s a duty we owe to the office and our country.

good luck and god bless you. god bless all of us.

p.s.: could you please see if you can keep the next election cycle a little shorter?

p.p.s.: i’m gonna hold you to that thing you said on letterman about not letting apple release a new ipod right after i buy the old ipod!

rock’n'roll

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