Debate 08

Wednesday morning we hit the road for Hofstra University in Hempstead out on Long Island ..this involved a trip across the 59th Street Bridge and out thru Queens. We arrived at the University some eight hours before the debate was due to start..and were immediately directed to the Budwieser media tent - John McCain's wife is an heir to the Anheuser-Busch fortune, but this detail wasn't mentioned..



















Journalists and free beer tend to be an unpredictable combination ...but given we had the story of the day in our lap, we were restrained until much later in the evening..









































This was the story for the entire US media and hundreds of TV, Radio, and print journos from around the globe. The media centre was in this building ..right next to the theatre where the debate was held ..we had to watch it on TV like everybody else..






















A rare shot of your correspondent in a suit ....

One of the more outrageous aspects of the day was that the University informed us that access to wi-fi would cost $US200, and an ISDN (mostly used for TV pic feeds) would be $US350 for the day. This was a blow for many of the foreign journalists...so after extensive discussions with the organisers, (along the lines of "there must be some mistake, we have this organised" ...or "don't you know who we are", we're here as guests of the State Dept " etc etc ) ..eventually we won the day ..

In another part of the campus the students were going mad, swept up with the excitment of the biggest political event ever to grace their University..

NBC were broadcasting from the student cafe.

Bill Schneider looking peeved while the CNN network producer makes him wait...

I love this photo, says it all about the media.

And Bill wasn't the only one waiting ...we did our fair share as the tension built across the afternoon .. I did a Q&A with Morning Report, and we wandered about the media wonderland inside the "secure zone' ..

Down at the Student union, MSNBC were running their nightly political news programmes live ...with a student rabble backdrop...

MSNBC host Chris Matthews was doin' it live...

"I'mChrisMatthews,letsplayHardball.."

So, the debate came and went , with the gathered press groaning at every mention of "Joe The Plumber". It was one of those mass-media events which move very quickly as everybody searches for an angle and the filing demands are intense ..post-debate things really got a little hectic, with the various surrogates for the candidates fronting up to reporters to defend their man.. I had to put the camera down and pick up the radio mic to push my way into iv's with chief strategists for both sides, as well as discussions with economic advisors and others.

The term "media scrum" was born here.

It was gloriously mad, and urgent, and right where the global spotlight fell for a few hours.

One of my best days in journalism.