By Steve Rushing
Probably the most enticing part of this election year for me as a journalist was the visits to Texarkana by the two presidential candidates. Although there were crowds ranging in the tens of thousands, who came out to see the candidates, I feel that I received an education in political journalism.
When President Carter visited, I saw journalists from all parts of the nation who represented the major wire services as well as the large newspapers. A certain romantic glamour seemed to follow them as they jumped off their plane to board the bus that carried them to the Post Office.
Even when they got off, I still felt a twinge of excitement as they ran to their specified spots to cover the same speech they had heard twice that day. I thought they surely had the most perfect job if there ever was one.
Then Governor Reagan came to town. While waiting at the airport, I got the chance to meet several members of the press corps that had been following him.
When I looked into the first man’s eyes I saw several blood-shot lines that signaled he had had little sleep within the last few weeks. The booze on his breath also said that he was fighting for every minute that his eyes were open.
After speaking to several members of this “marathon of work”, I then situated myself onto the platform reserved for the local and foreign press.
Hands standing there I heard over and over each of the Governor’s words. In the realization that these people had heard the speech so many times that they had memorized it perfectly. One even did a better job of reciting it than Reagan.
It was then that took away some of the romance was the woman from a Chicago paper who read a “Harlequin Romance” for the duration of the speech.
Thankfully, these people did take away much of the excitement that I had seen in their jobs, giving me some insight as to which road of the journalistic trade I might plan to stray from. After all, I lose enough sleep over this paper!