When it comes to the veepstakes, the waiting, apparently, is the hardest part.
At least it is for the political press corps, which seems to have gone completely nutso in the last 48 hours. I'm not talking about the constant speculation they--we--have indulged in regarding the unknown (and unknowable) identify of Barack Obama's running mate. That's par for the course. I'm referring instead to the pleading phone calls to an unresponsive Chicago; the unctuous emails to inside "sources" who themselves don't know anything; and, most of all, the absurd reportorial throngs surrounding the houses of the favored few still thought to be in the running--all in the hopes that somehow, someway something will happen that will award one particular reporter (as opposed to all the other guys and girls loitering in Joe Biden's driveway or telling Bill Burton "you don’t understand the kind of pressure I am under") the big scoop.
Seriously. If the MSM took all the time, money and talent it's currently spending on spilling beans scheduled to spill within a matter of hours anyway--all for inside-the-Beltway bragging rights, no less--and devoted them instead to breaking stories on, say, stuff that mattered, the public's hatred for the press might burn with the fire of only 999,999 suns. Don't get me wrong. I'm all for obsessing over the veepstakes. But what have we really learned from all the calls, messages and stakeouts?
On Wednesday, for example, the good folks at ABC News's Political Radar blog reported that Biden reached out the window of his pickup at precisely 9:15 a.m. to hand a box of coffee and a dozen bagels from the local Brew Ha Ha Espresso Cafe to the gaggle of reporters waiting outside his Wilmington, Del. home. "All the reporters and camera people had their video cameras trained
on him, so there was a moment where no one understood he was giving the
bagels to us," wrote Z. Byron Wolf. "One reporter was so flustered that he asked if Biden had talked to 'Senator O'Biden.'" Given that Biden drove off without a word, apparently not. Later, Wolf resurfaced to inform us that Biden had "left his house for the second time today" with a "load of wood in the back of his pickup," adding that "upon his return from disposing of the logs, Biden pulled up in his
pickup, saying he had nothing to report"--other than the fact that he "had a successful dump."
Meanwhile, Wolf's colleague Matt Jaffe filed an item from the Washington D.C. yard of Sen. Evan Bayh of Indiana, breaking news that "a large black gym bag got stuck on the door of a car driven by a friend of Bayh's as it pulled out of his garage." He continued:
When the car reached the top of the tree-lined residential road,
Bayh, sitting on the passenger side, opened his door and the bag fall
out into the street. And then, as if nothing had happened, the car
drove away, leaving the tag-along bag stranded right in the path of
oncoming traffic. Members of the media staked out at the residence stood around
confused about the bizarre scene, before one especially conscientious
reporter walked up the hill to pick up the bag. Yours truly took the
bag, weighed down with "Spartans" lacrosse gear, back to Bayh's house,
dropping it off on the front porch.
Crisis averted. As for Tim Kaine, he spent the day "traveling in a black Chevy Trailblazer while a large bus full of staff trails behind him"--and telling reporters (one, twice, three times!) "I really don't know" whom Obama is going to pick. Of course, if sartorial clues--or the fine-tuned antennae of MSNBC's Mike Memoli and Carrie Dann--are to be trusted, Biden is all but a lock. According to Memoli and Dann, writing Thursday afternoon, the "Biden of stakeouts past--the
one who handed out bagels and willingly stopped for quick chats--is
gone," replaced by a gentleman who wore "more formal attire" as he "rode shotgun... in the car of a staffer" and "act[ed], dare we say, more vice presidential." They were kidding. I think.
Thankfully, our long national nightmare is almost over. (I say that as both a citizen and as a reporter who sympathizes with my poor counterparts at ABC and MSNBC, who are only following their editors' instructions--with good humor and good cheer.) Speaking to USA Today's Kathy Kiely Thursday afternoon, Obama finally, blessedly said that yes, he has chosen a veep--even though he wouldn't divulge who the lucky guy or gal is. "I won't comment on anything else until I introduce our running mate
to the world," he added. "That's all you're going to get out of me." We expect Obama to call the winner today and send out a text message to supporters announcing his pick sometime before Saturday morning, when the pair is scheduled to appear together in Springfield, Ill.
In the meantime, if you need some bagels, you know where to go.
