In the lead-up to the Democratic presidential debate on Monday, I was so preoccupied with the tasks at hand — editing the newspaper, hiring a new editorial assistant, and putting together the next edition of Dish — that I totally neglected to grasp the significance of the presidential debate happening at the Citadel. I let four others from CP get press credentials, figuring I’d be riding my desk while the staffers had all the fun — again.
Then it hit me last Friday. The next president will be debating the most important issues of the day — the stuff we write about — just down the street, and I’m not planning on attending? WTF? With the help of D.A. Smith, I quickly made plans to volunteer with the Stonewall Dems, who would be checking in attendees at the Joe and working as ushers at the Citadel, because volunteer duty came with the promise of a ticket.
At 2 p.m. on Monday (the primetime of newspaper production around here), I left the paper in the trusty hands of Patrick Sharbaugh and headed out in the hot hot heat for an afternoon at the Joe. Volunteering was fun, meeting new people was great, and being outside and away from my desk was simply inspiring. I’ve got to do more of that.
After everyone was checked in, we jumped on a bus and headed to the debate. Unlike my credentialed brethren, who were sequestered in the media and spin rooms away from the action, I was up in the cheap seats with a prime view of the stage and video screen.
The debate was engrossing, but after nearly two hours in a backless stadium seat, my neck was creaking, so we snuck out and headed over to the afterparty at Deas Hall where the Democratic Party had the largest cheese spread I have ever seen. Unfortunately, it was the only food in the room. We figured it was a cost-saving measure — cheese being an affordable way to fill up lots of folks.
Big screens showed the debate being wrapped up, and soon the audience and candidates filtered in. Bill Richardson was the first to speak followed by Hillary, who got rushed by the adoring crowd.
At that point, the room was filling up and the piles of cheese were dwindling, so we snagged a couple of Hillary and Obama placards from the walls and headed to Hillary’s afterparty at the Mariott on Lockwood.
As D.A. Smith noted on her blog post, our timing was impeccable. We walked in, and Hillary took the stage to a full house. This crowd was more than adoring, it was fawning. And the secret service agents were everywhere. Man, these dudes are serious.
After snapping a few shots, we headed over to the bus shed for the Google/YouTube/CNN party. It was unbelievable. I’ll post more about that later….
