Holy Toledo! Leaks from the Pissoir of Politics, Texas

"im traveling with todd heisler on the hillary campaign.. lastnight the press room was in a mens locker room... voila! a urinal paced filing center..
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/03/04/well-at-least-it-had-wi_n_89808.html

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   So, logistics caused some Clinton strategist to place the filing center of one Presidential campaign stop in a Texas bathroom. This normally wouldn’t rate much more than a passing comment in any newspaper. But we’re in America, where any inconvenience is cause for a diarrhetic diatribe of discontent. I’ll show some editorial control and keep the scatological references to a bare minimum. Suffice it to say, the filing chambers became an echo chamber of disgruntlement and disemboweled laughter.
   I only know this because recent guest David Burnett, of TIME and Contact Press Images, emailed today that he and Todd Heisler, of NYT, were both stuck filing stories from the bathroom of some Texas campaign stop for Hillary. By coincidence, I’d seen that Todd had published a Clinton image from Toledo yesterday and remarked to my wife that I should post him my regrets. While Toledo boasts a relatively new art museum, it’s not the marquee spot of the Buckeye State. As a native, I love Ohio. Frankly, I enjoy the I-90 view of Toledo best.
   Regardless, this race is getting tighter for Democrats and tonight is sealed for John McCain, the Republican nominee for the U.S. Presidential 2008 Election as of the four-state primary results for Vermont (Obama), Rhode Island (Clinton), Ohio(Clinton) and Texas (Clinton). Yes, yes I'm watching CNN, despite its relentlessly self promotional buzz. Yes, they have compiled a strong group of commentators (Bob Woodward, David Gergen, Jeffrey Toobin, Gloria Borger, William Schneider, Amy Holmes, etc.). In their words, of course, "the best political team on television" and FOX has followed suit by calling its commentators "the best political team." Please. P-L-E-A-S-E. The news is NOT the Newsmakers. CNN and FOX simply shovel forth more evidence of broadcast journalism's interminable need for breathless entertainment over substance. 
   The news is the story of resurrection. The news is the story of candidates diagnosed as DOA and then resurrected by the voters. Sen. MacCain rises from the dead in the span of six months of his campaign being called finished for lack of finances by reporters. Hillary Clinton pushes away the gravediggers of the Democratic party waiting to bury her. This lumbering Presidential race now has more zombies than lurching extras in the 'Night of the Living Dead" or the state of Florida.
   It’s been a brilliant election cycle with regards to participation and crushing conventional wisdom. Sen. Barack Obama has brought young and new voters into a system that is the envy of many countries. Common wisdom says young voters are disenfranchised, non-readers (J.K. Rowland exposed this muggled thinking as false), lazy and tuned out. Obama's campaign has proved otherwise. Another popular belief is that money is the mother's milk, the oxygen of politics. Certainly, money is essential for building the infrastructure and purchasing power of advertising in ANY campaign.Then the media experienced the Iowa Presidential Primaries of 2008. Rep. candidate Mitt Romney outspent Rep. Gov. Mike Huckabee by a magnitude of 100! And then the plain-talking, guitar-picking Arkansas preacher walked away from Iowa with a victory. This knocked pundits off their pulpits. We also saw number of political analysts ripping into Pres. Bill Clinton's controversial comments in South Carolina only to turn sheepish at later victories for Hillary in the voting booths. While politics may seem predictable to some, the Digital Revolution, the rippling of global news events and larger voter turnout than predicted continues to surprise even the best political affairs reporters. History and political history may be a strong indicator of political trends and human behavior. But political science is anything, a-n-y-t-h-i-n-g BUT a science.
   Many adages I heard at the DNC in Boston 2004 rise to the surface:
a) ”When Democrats get angry, they pick up a protest sign. When Republicans get angry, they pull out their pocket books and wallets.”
b) “Politics is just a street fight, plain and simple …in an Armani suit.”
c) "FAUX NEWS, We Deceive, You Believe"
d) “It was easier getting in and out of the Green Zone in Baghdad than into the Fleet Center,” said to Heisler, going through security measures outside the Fleet Center.
   The DNC experience was a brilliant, thrilling, bizarre and infuriating phenomenon from my inside experience. I was privileged to gain access to the backrooms, filing centers, blogging bowels and inner sanctum of the Fleet Center for the week of the first national political convention since the Sept. 11 Terrorist Attacks. I am reminded of one more quote that infuses pride in the experiment that is the United States.
   “A democracy should be a loud and noisy place where many voices are heard.”