Ever since I’ve gotten here, from the airports to just going to the grocery store I’ve felt like I was at a convention. The Obama convention.
The city’s teeming with Obama memorabilia and his supporters wearing Obama hats, shirts, buttons, scarves, you name it. When they start handing out Obama glow-sticks I’ll know it’s time to go home.
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Caught my flight after work and red-eyed it to Cleveland this morning. I got flashbacks to 40-below-zero January mornings in Chicago when I stepped off the plane there. Then it was a quick jump from Cleveland to Baltimore and a SuperShuttle van ride in to downtown DC where I’m staying. Meanwhile, Obama made his way to the Capitol on a whistlestop tour from Philly to Wilmington to Baltimore and then to his new home.
I watched some of it while catching up with friends and was annoyed by the wall-to-wall coverage and non-stop punditry. At the very least it was mostly ridiculous hyperbole, at its worst there were crawlers that let viewers know “when it’s cold you have to ‘go’ more” during a piece on a shortage of port-a-potties for the inauguration festivities. Yeah, thanks, MSNBC, I needed to know that.
Tragically, it’s looking grim that I’ll be able to see “The Big Shoulders Ball” Monday night. We were supposed to get tickets for the show which features several Chicago bands, including longtime favorite Eleventh Dream Day, but it was sold out before we got any. But I’m aiming to catch the big concert at the Lincoln Memorial tomorrow. Hoping Aretha Franklin and Stevie Wonder perform there.
By the way, if you get a chance, check out a reminiscence about my Dad and his role in the “Blues Brothers” movie. One of our former copy editors, Craig Howie, did a superb top 10 list of famous cop cars in Hollywood and asked me to contribute the anecdote about my Dad.
If you’re going to DC like me, then you’ll definitely want to take the chance to meet your congressman.
I plan to. In fact, I’m really looking forward to meeting Rep. Adam Schiff since I used to be the city editor for our sister-papers, the Glendale News-Press and the Burbank Leader, which cover him, and Schiff happens to be my representative. Schiff’s open house will be 1 to 3 p.m. Monday in his DC office at 2447 Rayburn House Office Building. When I talked to his spokesman, Sean Oblack, he said to look him up and that he’d be easy to spot. “I’ll be the really tall one.”
Not absolutely sure yet about Rep. Brad Sherman’s plans, but Randy Scholnick of Newport Beach, who is a family friend of Sherman’s, heard the congressman’s having an open house Monday as well. Sherman and his wife will be there, thanks to their congressman, Rep. John Campbell. They’ll also want to make an appearance at Campbell’s mini-townhall-style get-together Monday at 1507 Longworth House Office Building, Washington, DC, 20515. If you’re DC-bound and you’d like to ask Campbell a question or two, make a reservation by calling (202) 225-5611.
Scholnick, who runs his heating and air-conditioning business, Air Doctors, out of his Corona Del Mar house, put his name into the lottery for swearing-in tickets like many others in Campbell’s district. He got a call back earlier this month saying he won the lottery.
“They asked me if I was going and I said, ‘I don’t have air fare or a place to stay, but I’ll be there,” Scholnick said.
Scholnick and his wife initially were Hillary Clinton supporters, but when they “saw the writing on the wall” he said it was easy to switch over to Barack Obama.
Scholnick scored a bedroom near the Pentagon through Craigslist that was advertised at $150 a night, but the owners cut it down to $80. Then, after trying some of those discount travel sites like I did (I booked mine through Orbitz), he decided the best deal was Jet Blue. Like me, they’ll have one stopover each way, but that’s not too bad. We’re hoping the lousy weather doesn’t slow us down.
Scholnick said he’s excited about the Obama administration because of the president-elect’s pledge to seek more clean-energy initiatives.
“We’re really bucking the trend with this economy,” Scholnick said, explaining how many companies are looking to retrofit buildings to save money on heating and air conditioning.
I hope to catch up with him when I’m in town, along with some journalism friends from Chicago. I’m catching a red-eye tonight after work, and hope to blog some more tomorrow — maybe after a little rest, though!