|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| home | help | back | first | fref | pref | prev | next | nref | lref | last | post |
Date: Sun, 14 Mar 1999 16:59:32 -0500 To: cypherpunks@cyberpass.net From: Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com> Reply-To: Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com> >Date: Sun, 14 Mar 1999 15:45:32 -0500 >To: politech@vorlon.mit.edu >From: Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com> >Subject: FC: Confessions of an email addict (or, Clinton's trip home) >Sender: owner-politech@vorlon.mit.edu >Reply-To: declan@well.com >X-Loop: politech@vorlon.mit.edu >X-Url: Politech is at http://www.well.com/~declan/politech/ > >Apologies if you've tried to reach me and I haven't responded. I was >unexpectedly called away to cover the president's three-day trip to Texas >and Arkansas. > >I did have my laptop with me and could have logged in, but when you're in >the "tight pool" and stay with the president constantly, by the time you >get to bed you're exhausted. (Even Air Force One, which has direct >connections to the White House switchboard we can use, does not yet have >Ethernet hookups at each reporter's seat.) > >The so-called tight pool was created because the number of reporters who >want to cover the president is larger than the number who can reasonably do >so. The 30-car motorcade -- one van just to carry POTUS luggage -- is >already too awkward. (In one trip to Aspen I covered, our motorcade split >in two when one driver got lost.) And even a plane as large as AF1 only has >a small number of seats reserved for the press. > >The compromise: Reporters from national publications travel with POTUS at >all times, as long as they share their reports with their colleagues. > >So when Clinton went to a Little Rock fundraiser last night (raised >$200,000 for the DNC, held in the living room of an executive at Entergy >Inc.) I was the only such reporter in the room. When I left I phoned in my >report for the rest of the press corps to use. > >This trip was more tiring than usual. Part of the problem was that Clinton >was back home and seemed to know everyone. By around midnight last night, >the tight pool was so exhausted that we gave Clinton an unprecedented >standing ovation when he finally decided to leave one fundraising gathering >-- just 90 minutes behind schedule. At one point he asked if the press >corps would be upset that we weren't staying in Little Rock another night >(as was scheduled until rain cancelled golf plans). Huh? That, we decided, >was the mark of a president who was deeply out of touch with reality. > >It's interesting to note that to the traveling press corps, policy and even >politics are much less important than personal behavior. Clinton is >well-known as being much less considerate of everyone he travels with than >Bush or Gore have been. He routinely keeps visiting dignitaries waiting in >the rain outside AF1, for instance, instead of getting out as soon as it >lands. > >-Declan > > > >-------------------------------------------------------------------------- >POLITECH -- the moderated mailing list of politics and technology >To subscribe: send a message to majordomo@vorlon.mit.edu with this text: >subscribe politech >More information is at http://www.well.com/~declan/politech/ >-------------------------------------------------------------------------- >
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| home | help | back | first | fref | pref | prev | next | nref | lref | last | post |