CNN's Candy Crowley was right at the first desk when you walked in, busy working on something. Roger Simon of Politico.com was walking in to the filing room as I was leaving. I introduced myself, opednews, and told him how regularly we link to politico articles, and I marvelled how often they had hard news. He told me they have about 70 people on staff, but less than a dozen actual reporters. Not a bad startup. I hadn't realized Politico was such a big operation.
I checked things out, then went to grab dinner. Drexel provided free meals to all the credentialled press-- student fare, but far better than when I was at school.
Next, I went back to the tent, where they were shooting hardball. The crowd of candidate supporters was even bigger. They were in front of the tent. Off to the side and behind the tent, there were far fewer people. There was a security guard turning people away. I showed my pass and was waved through.
Former Philly Mayor and former DNC chair, currently, PA Governor Ed Rendell was standing about 15 feet from me. I first met GOvernor Rendell at the Democratic debate in Philly four years ago. Afterwards, I've spoken with him again at Take Back America, and at a local Grange fair, so this was our fourth time. But he didn't remember me. Not surprising. All the past meetings were brief. This time, I could tell him that OpEdNEws was now the third highest traffic media website in the state. That perked up his eyes. He called his assistant over and told him to put me on their media mailing list.
Next, I saw a woman with a makeup kit. Figuring she would know the players for the Hardball show, I asked her who the producer was. She pointed to me to a man and I told him about OpEdNews, that we're among the top progressive media sites, similar to the huffington post. He promised to check it out. And so the evening went. Later, during a break, I got a chance to introduce myself to Chris Matthews. "So, you want to be on the show?" he checked with me. "Yep." I answered.
It seemed that the interesting people were showing up to be in the tent with Matthews. So I waited around and got a chance to chat with, pitch OpEdNEws and hand my card to Michael Smerconish, a local right wing talk show host who does morning drive time on "The Big Talker" radio station, where he starts the day, followed by Glen Beck, Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity. Unlike the three nationally syndicated radio rightwingnuts, Smerconish is a pretty smart guy who actually talks with nuance. We disagree with a lot, but I actually like him. Face to face, he was a nice guy. actually, just about all the people I spoke to were. Michael introduced me to Brian Tierney, publisher and CEO of the Philadelphia Inquirer. After Tierney finished with Mattews, we spoke briefly and he suggested the best editor to contact.
Just before Tierney went on, I had a chance to chat briefly and do my intro to OpEdNEws.com with Andrea Mitchell.
The Guy Who Gave Gravel the Boot
I also had a chance to talk, behind the tent, with Mike Todd, in charge of politics at NBC (not sure of his exact title.) He WAS in charge of the final policy decision that ended up keeping Senator Mike Gravel from participating in the debate. I spoke to Mike about it. "There are 138 democratic declared democratic candidates," he told me. He mentioned Dal LaMagna as one I knew. "Dennis Kucinich and Ron Paul showed they could make it." he argued. In the background, there were at least 20 Ron Paul Supporters at this Democratic debate, and at least 20 Kucinich supporters. There was not one single Gravel... or LaMagna sign to be seen.
Gravel's Alternate Event and NBC's Dem Candidate Screenout
Later, when the biggest crowd of supporters gathered at the entrance to the debate hall, I did see about a dozen people carrying signs supporting Freedom of speech, standing up for Gravel.
I went to the alternate event at the World Cafe. There were about 100 people there. I knew a few local activists. A lot of people there were carrying signs calling for impeachment. A few members of new, local code pink groups were there too. Gravel's wife introduced the former senator. I hadn't known that it was Gravel that made public the "pentagon papers" that were released, back in the seventies. He's got a great history of standing up for what's right. He deserves a lot of respect.
Gravel reported that he had $30,000 in the bank, that the event he was doing in Philly was costing $20,000 (he was having it video recorded and posted to his website-- gravel2008.us and youtube) and he was hoping this would do what it takes to keep the funds coming in for his campaign. His
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