Far ahead of the news cycle

House Speaker John Boehner (whom I photographed here that day with Majority Leader Mickey Cantor) denounced President Obama's State of the Union speech as "pathetic." Maybe that's not unusual for a House speaker commenting on a speech by a president from the other party, especially in an election year.

On the other hand, Boehner passed this judgement two days before the president's actual speech. And people on Capitol Hill wonder why they're perceived as partisan and grid-locked.....

Gotta read more carefully

When a client sent me a two-line email asking me to shoot a campaign event last week with Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley, I marked on my calendar what I thought would be a peaceful hour or two with a few dozen people and a popular candidate.

But when I arrived at Bowie State University for the event, I found traffic jams, people parking on the highway and huge security lines. Uh oh, I thought, this doesn't look good.

If I'd only read the email a little more closely, I would have realized that this particular campaign stop involved President Obama showing up to endorse the governor. To read the newspapers these days, you'd think that an Obama event would only attract a few party loyalists and some disgruntled Tea Partyers. That's apparently not the case, at least in that part of Maryland. Thousands of people waited a long time in those lines to see and hear — and cheer — the president.

Faces Tell The Story, II

Back in November, I wrote that on election night, "the story of this point in our nation's history is told in the faces of its people." In Washington on Inauguration Day, on the Mall as President Obama took the oath of office, that story continued. I was near the Washington monument; I talked to a photographer who was high on the Capitol with a view of the crowd, and who told how he was moved to tears at the sight of all those people who came from everywhere in the country to stand out in freezing cold and lend their presence to the event. It was a privilege to be there.

History is made, and faces tell the story

I had an assignment last night to cover an election victory party in Baltimore, Maryland. It started out well enough — nice venue, positive vibes, free food — and that grew through the evening.

Then, at 11:01, when the polls closed in California, the TV screens flashed the message: "Barack Obama Predicted 44th President of the United States."

I was watching the people. This was a crowd that had come in expecting this very result. But the reaction that went through the crowd — it was sheer shock, certainly followed by joy. From where I was standing, the story of this point in our nation's history is told in the faces of its people.