The Day

Nancy Pelosi and Joe Biden, both here in one day. Sure, it doesn't sound like it should be tough for a reporter, right? Pelosi's "tour" of the Birdland area was first scheduled to take place at noon. Then, we received a press release to say it had been moved up to 11:45am. Problem was, Biden's event was scheduled to start at 3:15 at the Iowa State Fairgrounds. Big deal, right? "Pre-set" for us was between 11:30 and noon. "Pre-set" is what we call it when we have to drop off our gear (camera, tripod, tapes, batteries, lights, cases,etc.) so the secret service can check them all out.

Obviously, I couldn't be at two places at once. So two photographers brought all our stuff to the fairgrounds, while a third photographer and I headed to North High School to cover Pelosi. So much for the early start time. It started 13 minutes late, not exactly what I needed on a busy day. One thing I noticed...this was hardly a bi-partisan tour. Pelosi sat along with Iowa's Democratic Governor Chet Culver and the state's 3 Democratic members of Congress. Obviously, all 3 don't represent the Birdland area. Only Leonard Boswell does. But they were all there.

BTW, to my knowledge Pelosi never did take the tour of Birdland.