Dateline: Jefferson Hotel, Washington DC, 21 October 2005
Watched NDU tape last night, which I guess the college will make available on their website for public to view soon (according to one eager fellow who's investigated it for me), and I was pretty happy, given this was the first time I had done that brief. I will review the tape over the weekend--slide by slide--so I might boost the PPT slides to capture what I'm saying that could more logically be presented visually to drive the point home. I target this for the 92nd Street Y presentation on the 23rd, where I'll go an hour (perfect) and then do Q&A.
Problem with watching the tape is that I got so jacked about working the brief that I couldn't go to sleep, so popped an Ambien, which I don't like to do absent time shifts, but damn it, I needed the 6 hours.
Up at 0700 and I'm with John Yaukey of Gannett News Service for coffee in the restaurant here. This guy is awfully savvy, so it's a pretty high-level discussion. No idea where he goes with it, but he certainly warmed me up.
Good thing, too, because then I meet my handler for the day, Alison Collins (neat lady and great companion for the day), and we're off to CBS Radio to tape a "Weekend Roundup" segment with the 100-mph brain that is Dan Raviv, who is so easy to talk with it that the interviews always fly by.
Then stay in same studio and do 8 minutes or so with JJ Green, defense reporter for WFED-AM, a special federal worker news radio. That flies by as well. I am extremely warm.
Then to WAMU-FM to tape Diane Rehm, except no Diane. I get Susan Page (hope I remember that right) from USA Today. She is really nice and a very solid interviewer. I enjoy the hour immensely and feel I do okay on the call-ins. That is live. I get a tape walking out of door that I will listen to tonight. If you want to hear it now, go to my front page and see the links my webmaster Critt set up.
Then to Reuters TV for about 20 minutes of taped interview with Deborah Lutterbeck. She's great, and that flies by too.
Then to CNN and PNM-supporter Jim Barnett (gotta an older brother by that name) who's a supervising producer there. He puts me in a studio and asks a load of questions for a sequence of stuff CNN will run next week, I am told. I do my best and Jim's happy, but I am getting tired. We meet Wolf Blitzer waiting for the elevators.
Then to Fox News and I sit in studio by myself and answer questions over ear piece from Pentagon correspondent Brett Baer (not sure of spelling) and his questions are good and I've got just enough brain power to keep it solid and coherent.
Then Alison drives me to the Jefferson, I pop the first minibar beer and order a slew of food via room service (I haven't eaten all day to stay lean and mean and focused--yes, it works for me given my allergies).
Das ist alles!
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