Hurry Up and Wait

We were worried the snow would slow us down on our way to Story City from Des Moines today. Without the weather, it's usually a 45 minute drive or so. The half a foot or so of snow slowed us down about ten minutes. No worries though. Even though a staffer for Hillary Clinton told me within the hour that she would be here on time, it is not the case. It usually isn't. I don't recall one Clinton event this entire cycle that started on time.

Thursday, the campaign offered us some time with the Senator after this event today. It's a rare occurrence. In fact, I've only sat down with her once this cycle and that was during the spring. I've talked to the other candidates far more often. My friends in the national media complain about the same problem. Although, Clinton has been doing more "avails" in recent weeks. That's when she makes herself available for a few questions after an event. Most, if not all, of the other candidates to those avails at least once a day while they're in Iowa. I'm told we will still get some time with her before Caucus night. Six days from now. The L.A. Times has a story today about Clinton not taking questions from the audience recently either.

Meantime, it's 1:58pm, 28 minutes after the scheduled start of this event here at the Roland-Story Middle School in Story City. The campaign just passed some time playing "Hillary trivia". Someone asks the audience questions about Clinton's background. I've seen Obama's campaign do this since the summer. I haven't seen Clinton's camp do this before.

A staffer just implored the crowd for some noise. This is his third or fourth attempt to raise the decibel level here. It's pretty quiet for a crowd this size. I'd say 250-300 people here. Even the music is quiet. The Police's "Every Little Thing" politely plays.

Now the staffer just asked the crowd to put cell phones on vibrate or silent. Maybe we're getting close. Time check: 2:04pm. A woman in the crowd is knitting.

The staffer just laid out notes on the podium. A secret service agent just walked in. Looks like it's time. Time check: 2:14pm.

HRC takes the microphone. She thanked the clapping crowd. The crowd is still not very loud. Maybe too much Christmas pie. Clinton just apologized for being late. She said as the campaign winds down the stretch, it gets harder and harder to stay on time.

Clinton said she visited Pakistan last year and then later told Prez Bush he should send some time of envoy to the area, preferrably some type of retired general to talk with Musharraf. We need an international delegation to investigate Pakistan opposition leader, Benazir Bhutto's death.