BTS: Air Force One Arrival and 2012 Campaign Wrap-Up

[NOTE: this is a long-delayed follow-up for the last Obama event I covered back in October 2012 and a "capstone" for my political reporting for that most recently completed presidential election cycle. Because of the 16-month gap, I am relying upon emails and photos to help dredge up the more intangible recollections of my experiences.]

Vice President Joe Biden and President Barack Obama speaking to a crowd at Dayton, Ohio's Triangle Park at a joint rally on October 23, 2012. (photo courtesy of the Associated Press)

Dayton was extremely fortunate to have both major party tickets bring their nominees to the "Gem City" for joint appearances in the later stages of the general election campaign.  I took an unfortunate pass on the Romney/Ryan dual event at the Dayton International Airport in late September.  That same month, I did cover a Biden rally right down the road from me at Wright State University and an Obama "grassroots event" held in Cincinnati's Eden Park but I was surprised when I received an email on October 19th from the Obama 2012 campaign about a joint appearance at the city's historic Triangle Park on the following Tuesday.  Other than at the national convention in Charlotte, neither candidate had appeared at the same venue at the same time so this was a ready indicator of the importance of Ohio to their reelection chances.

BTS: Turner Luncheon

[NOTE:  these 'BTS' features were created to document my personal experience in covering events that I report on here in this blog.  While I have been letting a little partisanship slip out in some recent postings, I will try to keep this and other 'BTS' items apolitical in nature and stick to the 'nuts and bolts' of getting and producing the stories.]

Representative Mike Turner participating in a debate on amendments to the National Defense Authorization Act on the floor of the US House of Representatives on May 17, 2012.

I was first made aware of Congressman Turner’s appearance through an announcement that was posted on the main Sharepoint site in my office's computer network.  The National Military Intelligence Association, with a chapter in the Dayton area, holds monthly membership meetings and tries to secure guest speakers from the local military and corporate community to speak to the gatherings.  On occasion, speakers from outside the area, to include Louis Andre, Senior Vice President of Intelligence Business Strategy for CACI International, Inc, and US Representative Steve Austria of Ohio's 7th Congressional District, have accepted invitations to address the membership.  To maximize participation at those events (and to help grow overall membership in the group), announcements are disseminated through a variety of online methods in and around the Wright-Patterson Air Force base community.  I will admit that I have attended a few luncheons over the past two years and the attendance averaged between 30 to 40 people and I assumed that this figure would be higher with someone of Turner's stature as this month's guest speaker.

BTS: Weekend Political Rallies

(NOTE:  This is another new feature that I am calling 'Behind the Scenes' where I will provide some of the 'background' that goes on  with my reporting experiences.  I wanted to do this for the Gingrich event last month but, as usual, other things superseded it.  I can go through my notes and photos to post on another day but I want to get these more recent events out before I lose the initiative.)

Some of the scenery outside the recent Santorum event in Blue Ash (left) and the Romeny town hall in Beavercreek (right).

March 3rd was sort of a 'milestone' day for me as a journalist-in-training.  Over the course of the past several months, I've been gradually getting out into my local community to cover real-world events to help hone my skills and to get myself acquainted with the local (and sometimes national) media.  However, all the ones before this past weekend were 'solo' events--I only scheduled one at a time or one per day.  With the 'Super Tuesday' presidential primary bearing down on Ohio voters, this was going to be a very good weekend to get closer to my goal of covering all of the major candidates in the 2012 election cycle.  Unfortunately, Texas congressman Ron Paul decided to skip Ohio and focus his campaign on states where he thought he might have a chance of winning (Washington state, Alaska) so I doubt that I will have an opportunity to attend one of his rallies.  To counter that bad news, I learned late last week that former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum had added a morning Cincinnati-area appearance to his other scheduled stops in the state that weekend.  I had already RSVP'd for the announced town hall meeting by former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney here in the Dayton area for the afternoon so it would be my first 'double' coverage day.

A/V: Santorum Stumps in Cincinnati Suburbs

(NOTE: this was the first of two events that I covered on March 3rd. Due to delays caused by this reporter being 'under the weather' from Saturday evening until today, I am now just finishing the early one and will post the later one as time and scheduling permits.)

Former US Senator Rick Santorum addresses an enthusiastic group of supporters at a rally Saturday morning in Blue Ash, Ohio.

In an attempt to shore up support in the remaining days leading up to next Tuesday's Ohio presidential primary, former US senator and current Republican candidate Rick Santorum attended a series of campaign events across the state yesterday to get his message out to his supporters as well as undecided voters.  Recent polling shows Santorum and his main rival, former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, in a very close race for winning the popular vote and a majority of Ohio's 66 delegates to this summer's Republican National Convention.