2009: Tommy Christopher’s Year In Review

As I said earlier, I started out the year cranking out 5 to 7 posts a day for Politics Daily, hoping to earn myself a real journalism job, but wondering if 2009 could come close to sustaining the interest generated by the 2008 campaign. At the time, I was about 90% certain that my trip to cover the inauguration would be a last hurrah, and people  would cease to care about politics after that.

The inauguration was a largely miserable, yet unforgettable, experience. Since I had very little in the way of inside connections, I don’t have much insight into the way the media covered the event. I focused on the human, sometimes quirky, details that larger outlets would miss, but which I had no choice but to notice.

Shortly after the inauguration, I applied for, and was granted, credentials to President Obama‘s first prime-time news conference. It would be my first trip to the White House. I could fill pages with my observations from that night, which is the main reason I started my own site, a place where I could immortalize every fascinating thought that popped into my head, and curse.

Emblematic of my naivete´ was this photo. It’s funny because it looks like the President and I are signaling each other, but notice how I’m the only idiot with his hand up? Halfway through, I still hadn’t cottoned on to the fact that the President was working off of a list, and I had no chance of getting my question in.

What I lacked in experience, though, I somewhat made up for in moxie. I did get my question in that night, but only by shanghaiing David Axelrod as he wrapped up an interview with Rachel Maddow.

>>>NEXT: Bloggers in the press conference and White House briefings!

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