Last McCain press credential ever?
It's gonna get crazy -- perhaps as insane as my bedhead -- so remember that I am a multiplatform entity: You can catch my election night narration here, but I will also be filing dispatches to the Washington Independent. On the fly reactions come via Twitter. Visual stimulation can be found on both Flickr and YouTube. I also post there. And don't forget to write: Use AskAMC AT gmail.com for Election Night related inquiries, please.
Let's get this party started.
Housekeeping: Donors expecting election night updates should sign up to follow "secretamc" on Twitter in addition to the public channel. Will keep everyone posted on further developments for premiere AMC members!
UPDATE: "SecretAMC" is for PREMIERE SUBSCRIBERS ONLY. I.e., $100 donors and above. Sorry.
THE DIFFERENCE: "SecretAMC" will be more frequent, more personal, more likely to get a direct response. Also, more scene-y, increasingly more unhinged.
Mostly, to the road. It was, as I said, a five state day today. There was a lot of rushing around, much hauling of crap, a ton of waiting in lines. Also some of the world's most awkward motorcades (anything that involves a bus, basically). And yet I felt like I had seen so remarkable little. I ran the numbers, and, clearly, I felt like I didn't see much because I didn't:
I think the "holding" slice is sort of not actually representative, because there is A LOT of waiting around build into everything. Only occasionally do they spell it out. As for those flight -- those hideously expensive flights, most of which I spend on the "press charter," AKA, "the ass plane," well, this is how they broke down:
Yep, most of it, indeed, an overwhelming amount, was spent getting to and from New Hampshire. Makes total sense. As goes Manch-vegas, so goes the nation, etc.
I mean, I get why they did it. I just wish they had the money to buy a national, road-block television buy, that's all. Like a normal campaign.
Next: Seven swing states in 24 hours. Will keep in touch.
Since things are going to be moving fast and furious -- with an emphasis on furious -- for the next 55 hours, those looking for hot electoral content should probably not depend solely on this blog or the AMC-branded offerings of The Washington Independent. I won't always have the time to blog or the battery power to even properly surf. So, some suggestions for those interested in getting their -- or someone else's -- money's worth out of me over the next few days.
While you're doing that, and I'm getting back on a bus, please enjoy these photos of Sarah Palin and John McCain carved into pumpkins.
Newport News, VA
I had to check with the local press crew that dropped in to cover the rally this morning: We stayed at hotel last night adjacent to a golf course, yet I've seen a lot of NRA stickers. Are we in "real Virginia" or fake Virginia? Liminal Virginia? "It's not rural, but it's REAL -- it's not 'DC Virginia.'"
And, true enough, if "real Virginia" is "where McCain has a chance of winning." Though by that definition, most of Virginia will magically disappear into a cloud of communism come Wednesday, as Obama is likely to win it.
McCain himself seemed to acknowledge this early on in his speech, when he gave the audience some of his legendary straight talk: "Let me state the obvious we need to win Virginia on the fourth to win."
It would also help if they held Arizona.
The crowd was enthusiastic enough, however, and included a fair amount of young people from a local private college. One fan was even younger. The ten year old that came to admire the media contingent's laptops told us he was sure that McCain would become president, even though, he admitted, "Everyone at my school is voting for Obama." Asked why, he rolled his eyes: "Because they're Democrats." And, obviously, were registered by ACORN.
McCain's remarks repeated most of what's become part of his standard stump speech during these final days. As with many candidates at the end of a long campaign, McCain seems at time as bored with it as the rest of his entourage is, and occasionally lurches into a verbless shorthand that sounds something like, "Joe! Drapes! Redistribution. Taxes! Fight!"
He also warns of the dark prospect of an undivided government, implying the horrors of what might happen "if the Democrats -- God forbid -- get total control of congress." The invocation of the deity is a sign of the campaign's urgency; with such a statement, McCain has probably done more public praying in the past few days than in the rest of his political life.
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