BTS: Obama's Stretch Run in Ohio (Part 1 of 2)

[NOTE: this is the first of a two-part installment of my "behind the scenes" observations related to the 2012 presidential campaign.  With the nearly 6-month delay between the events and this posting, I might overlook some of the trivial things I endured but I wanted to finally jot down the main items as well as my reflections on the entire reporting experience.] 

Seasongood Pavillion in Cincinnati's Eden Park being prepared the evening before President Obama's "grassroots event" last September

If you go back to my last "BTS" feature (related to my coverage of Vice President Joe Biden's September 12th "grassroots rally" at Wright State University), you would see that I (finally!) established contact with the Obama campaign's press office and was issued official press credentials to cover that rally as a full-fledged member of the media.  Since they had me on their email notification roster, I was receiving several updates per day on the current, recently completed, and upcoming events scheduled for the president and his running mate.  With Ohio as the biggest "swing state" prize in the November general election, it was only a matter of time before Obama would make his own appearance in the local area, and I received the following advisory just a few short days later:

My (Kinda Sorta) National Television Debut

[NOTE: with the nice weekend weather in these parts, I was originally going to take a trip down to the University of Cincinnati campus to report on an evolving controversy with potential national implications involving the open display of female genitalia and First Amendment protections.  Instead, I opted to write about an issue that strikes closer to home--at least for me.]

The Daily Rundown's host Chuck Todd giving his First Read on a very busy Wednesday morning...perhaps it was a little too busy for the MSNBC graphics department

While my blogging has been few and far between during these first few months of 2013, I am still keeping up with what is going on in the world around me (my last post is proof of that continuing awareness) and in domestic political circles, too.  One of my "can't miss" television programs about politics, The Daily Rundown, airs every weekday morning on the MSNBC cable news channel.  If you look through my postings over the past 15 months, I have blogged about it here several times already to offer my congratulations (and criticisms) when warranted.  Unfortunately, this entry falls under the latter category.