Tales from the campaign trail

STATIC

By RANDY DOTINGA - For the North County Times | Thursday, March 13, 2008 12:26 PM PDT ∞

National Public Radio correspondent Scott Horsley still regrets never having had a chance to check out Ann Romney's culinary prowess. Every morning, the San Diego-based reporter eats a bowl of granola. And so does former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who chows down on his wife's homemade concoction.

While following Romney on the campaign trail, Horsley figured he'd scoop his competitors and perform a taste test. But, sad to say, granola didn't turn out to be the breakfast of champions. Romney ended up leaving the race, but Horsley didn't. Lately, he's been covering presumptive Republican nominee John McCain, whose campaign has been busy sapping the energy of even the most health-food-fortified reporters.

"They just hold court constantly," Horsley said. "They are an open book when it comes to their strategy, their tactics, their view of the race. It gets to the point where you just want them to shut up sometimes."

For the moment, the 42-year-old Horsley is taking a break from the campaign trail and the manic McCain. He's returned to his desk at KPBS-FM, where he's worked since 1994. (He began working full time for NPR in 2001.)

But Horsley will soon head out on the campaign trail again as one of six NPR reporters following the remaining candidates. None is left from the batch of four he was first assigned to follow last summer ---- Romney, Chris Dodd, San Diego's own Duncan Hunter and almost-candidate Chuck Hagel.

In person, Horsley said, Romney came across just as he did on TV ---- a consummate businessman.

"The book on Romney was that he was a totally data-driven person hungry for information," Horsley said. "He was really a very curious guy."

In Iowa, Horsley followed Romney as he visited a store that sells refilled toner cartridges for printers. "He's studying the price list for all the different models, and he's asking his wife what toner model they have and how much money he could save. This is the world he knows, looking at spreadsheets. He was totally into it."

Humans were perhaps a bit more of a challenge for Romney to figure out. While strolling down an Iowa street followed by the media cameras, he was about to go inside a business when his alert wife, Ann, laid down the law: "You cannot take the TV cameras into a hair salon."

Iowan women in curlers probably never knew how close they came to national exposure on the small screen.

Romney's campaign floundered and eventually fizzled.

"He did have a knock against him as being a phony, and he could be terribly demagogic on things like immigration and same-sex marriage," Horsley said. "But you never got the sense that his heart was in that."

Horsley also covered McCain, considered an also-ran just a few months ago. McCain has been amazingly accessible to the press, with the exception of a few days after a supposed sex scandal broke out, Horsley said.

"You can talk to him three times a day if you want," he said. "At every event he does a news conference, and then he gets on a plane and has another news conference."

The problem for Horsley is simple: "What can I possibly ask that hasn't been asked three times today?

"I've never had that level of access. Everybody says the same thing. The New York Times reporter says, 'This is great, but when am I supposed to write?' "

McCain is actually more accessible to the press than either of the remaining Democratic contenders, Horsley said. He's also more open to the media than either John Kerry ("not particularly accommodating") or George W. Bush ("utterly contemptuous" of the press) back in 2004.

"He genuinely likes talking to reporters, and he is a genuinely a charming guy, not in a smarmy, win-friends-and-influence-people kind of way. He does have a winning way about him."

Horsley has only briefly covered the remaining Democratic candidates. He watched a Barack Obama audience undergo a remarkably "euphoric" experience at a speech in New Hampshire, while Hillary Clinton showed off her policy prowess at another event.

"She stood there and took questions for literally took two hours from the audience and just exhausted everyone," Horsley recalled. "She just answered everything, and answered knowledgably. There was not a problem that she didn't have a four- or five-point plan for or something to say about it. She showed everybody, if they had any doubt, that she has a very solid grasp of arcane policy details."

For now, Horsley awaits his next campaign assignments, which will include more coverage of McCain and, with any luck, no more visits to toner-cartridge stores or hair salons.

Quickie

The budget-cutters seem to be on the prowl at soft-rock station KyXy. Veteran newsman John Q. Lawrence is no longer with the station's highly rated morning show. But he remains at KyXy and will continue to host a weekly public-affairs show called "Concerning San Diego," said operations manager Charlie Quinn.

Randy Dotinga has a five-point plan to finish this column. E-mail him at NCTimesRadio@aol.com.

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