Or rather, if a presidential candidate, or this case spouse, holds an event without press, did it happen? It’s bad enough being late – like the two hours late Edwards usually ran – but somehow it’s even worse being early. People who show up on time are disappointed to have missed the event. And press have no video, no sound and no words to disseminate to the general public. Which was why I was a little disconcerted to arrive at a Michelle Obama event in Louisville, Kentucky today 45 minutes ahead of schedule only to find that she’d already spoken. Rudy Giuliani ran similarly early in Iowa, to much ridicule from the press. And Bush, who consistently runs early, sometimes has to halt the motorcade to give supporters and staff time to prepare for his arrival (I’ve often giggled at the surreal picture it must have made one of those times in 2004 when the motorcade stopped for 45 minutes in a Wisconsin field). Even though I’d missed Michelle, a few of the eager beaver early local press caught her so she still got at least some press. But I wondered, what must the supporters who showed up to find they’d missed her must have thought? I didn’t have time to find out – her staff warned me she could be running as much as an hour early for her next event (90 minutes away) so I booked out of there.
If a Tree Falls in the Woods
Subscribe to Jay Newton-Small on Facebook
-
Latest on Swampland
Romney Defends Bain Record, Hits Obama on Economy: ‘He Just Doesn’t Have a Clue’
Mitt Romney lashed President Obama’s economic stewardship in an interview with TIME’s Mark Halperin on Wednesday, deflecting attacks on his years as a private equity executive and laying out how he hopes to take control of the economy as soon as he’s sworn in, should he defeat Obama in November.
From our PartnersLewis Eisenberg, Major Romney Donor, Accuses Obama Of Demonizing Wall StreetHuffPost Politics
- Twice-Told TalesSlate
- Mitt Romney's $11.7 Million Raised In April Isn't The Whole PictureHuffPost Politics
Mother of Mitt: How Lenore Romney’s Failed Campaign Shaped the Presumptive Republican Nominee
This week’s TIME cover story, “The Mother of the Mitt Campaign,” tells the tale of how Lenore Romney’s 1970 run for U.S. Senate may have made a bigger impression on the Republican presidential candidate than his years spent as the son of a governor. Mitt’s father lost his own presidential bid, but it was the lessons from his mother’s loss that are more instructive as Romney enters the campaign stretch.
