So any time that President Bush leaves the White House, he takes what’s called the press pool with him. It’s a handful of reporters and photographers from various types of media — one newspaper reporter, a couple of wire reporters, one TV network, etc. In the case of newspaper reporters, the job of the pool reporter is to capture every detail that he or she sees and report it back to all other reporters who cover the White House, and they’re then free to use it in their stories.
Once a month, I have pool duty, and I had it Sunday. Weekend pool duty usually means you have to be at the White House very early to caravan out into the woods so Bush can ride his bike around out of your sight. Such was the case Sunday morning, and here was the first of the day’s pool reports that I filed:
“Pool report 1, 3-30-08
President left the White House in motorcade at about 8 am for biking at Secret Service training facility near Beltsville, Md. He was joined by Secret Service agents and, possibly, unidentified guests.
Pool did not see him, but did enjoy a Godfather marathon on AMC while we waited.
Arrived back at White House shortly after 10, with a lid until 5:50.”
Later Sunday night, Bush headed to Nationals Park for the local baseball team’s season opener against the Braves. It was also the first regular-season game at the new stadium. This was a better-than-average pool assignment. (Pool duty, incidentally, is doled out alphabetically each month, so as far as I know, the White House does not choose reporters based on which events are coming up on the schedule).
Here’s my pool report from the game:
“Pool report 2, 3-30-08
Potus (President of the United States) and motorcade arrived at Nationals Park about 7 pm. He disappeared for more than an hour for clubhouse visits.
After both the Braves and Nationals were introduced on the field (Nats’ starters came in from outfield), and after Denyce Graves sang the national anthem, the two teams cleared the field. Nationals manager Manny Acta, 3B Ryan Zimmerman and owner Ted Lerner came back on. Then Bush emerged from the Nationals’ dugout to throw the first pitch. He wore a red Nationals jacket and dark slacks.
It seemed there were more cheers than boos, but not by much. He walked quickly to the mound and almost immediately, with a high delivery, threw a high fastball that would have been a ball to anyone other than Yao Ming. Acta rose to catch it, manager and president quickly shook hands and Bush was waving to the crowd as he walked back into the dugout. The crowd reaction after the pitch was decidedly mixed. Bush, back in the dugout, gave the ball to team President Stan Kasten and he went back up the tunnel. Bush smiled throughout, despite the boos.
We’re told Potus is watching the game from the owner’s box and will do ESPN commentary in the third inning. It is now bottom of first and pool is watching from what appears to be a press conference room.”
We left the game in the fifth and ended up back at the White House for the night.
My description of the crowd reaction is catching some criticism on the blogs, based on what people heard at the game or on television. You can watch for yourself on YouTube. All I can say is that I reported what I heard, which has been backed up by people at the game — they announced Bush, there was a heavy amount of cheering initially, then the booing kicked in, he threw the pitch, and there was a continued mixed reaction afterward. I was right behind home plate on the field, which I think was a good place to gauge the stadium-wide reaction. But based on where you were sitting or where the ESPN microphones were, you might have heard something different. I think I got it right, but I’ll admit it’s more an art than a science. The booing certainly intensified after the pitch.
For you wrestling fans out there, think of a typical John Cena reaction.
Source: http://www.statesman.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/austin/politics/entries/2008/03/31/pool_duty_at_the_new_stadium.html
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