In today’s installment, the protective pool ponders the mysterious comings and goings of the Democratic nominee-apparent:
No major news. The Senator went to the Russell Senate building in the
morning to tape appearances with the three network morning shows. After 9
a.m., the pool headed to a large office building on 12th and
Pennsylvania . The candidate and David Axelrod went into a unmarked door
on the side of the building on E Street that read “Tenant Entrance
Only.”Much of the building houses Covington and Burling, the workplace of Eric
Holder, one of the members of Obama’s vice-presidential search team,
although Obama aides would not say what the meeting was about or if he
was meeting with Holder. They spent more than two hours inside. Obama
walked out that same side door, holding his briefcase. When a reporter
shouted “who were you meeting with” he smiled and replied “I’m not
telling you.”He then headed to the Senate for votes. As the motorcade stopped,
Axelrod and campaign manager David Plouffe stepped out of cars and
didn’t head into the Senate with the candidate. They also declined to
answer questions about the meetings they had attended.
Many of our commenters have asked whether John McCain has a similar protective pool arrangement. As it happens, I am traveling with the McCain campaign this week (we are barreling through a heavy rainstorm in West Virginia at the moment), and can report definitively that he does not. However, campaign officials have indicated to reporters that establishing one is a possibility in the near future. I can also report that the regular reporters on the McCain bus–seeing how much fun the Obama reporters are having doing protective pool duty–are not entirely enthusiastic about the prospect.