Des Moines-This morning, the Principal Financial Group’s downtown Des Moines office tower hosted Mitt Romney’s final major campaign event. Romney stood in front of the cameras of the world’s media and a crowd of some 400 people, many of them Principal employees .
The scribblers and typers, meanwhile, were dispatched to a basement meeting hall, where the stump speech was relayed on jumbo-tron. The room was contemporary corporate, just down the hall from the in-house gym, where the squeaking tennis shoes could be heard.
But for all its stylishness, rows of fixed desks, and ample power outlets, the hall lacked wireless Internet. While much of the press travels with cellular computer uplinks, basement rooms present a bit of a problem. Newsweek‘s Suzanne Smalley was typing away on her black Dell laptop, sitting against the wall using a long yellow Ethernet cable. But that wouldn’t work for the rest of the room.
So Michael Shear of The Washington Post took the cable, popped an Apple AirPort Express into the wall, and set up a wireless network. Soon the keyboards were clacking.
“You’re the man, Mike!” exclaimed Chris Stern of Bloomberg.
“Yeah, Mike!” said another
“I bring that little router to hotels–although we don’t need it at the Marriott,” Shear explained, mentioning where the Romney campaign billets.
Then Smalley had trouble accessing the network, but Shear fixed it, quickly hooking her into his new wireless universe. This wasn’t the first connectivity problem she’d dealt with. Unlike the Edwards press busses or vans, the Romney press bus has a wireless system and ample power plugs. But Smalley says the system can be flaky. And a Newsweek logistical slip-up means that her wireless modem is still waiting at her New Hampshire hotel. But for now she could leave her yellow wire behind take a seat in the front row of desks, just in time for Romney’s speech.
The room’s remaining chairs were filled by Principal employees who had been unable to fit in the main auditorium. These newcomers paid attention to Romney’s speech. They laughed at his jokes and tittered when he equated socialized medicine with “HillaryCare.” Their faces grew solemn when he told a moving anecdote about greeting a Massachusetts soldier’s casket at airport.
But not the folks from the Romney bus. They’d heard the stump speech again and again. For days, weeks, or months. Each rhetorical flourish was ignored. They typed stories, checked email, read news, or instant messaged, one ear on the proceedings. Chris Kuhn of Politico left the room to take a call. Bloomberg’s Stern got up a couple of times to check his digital recorder, which he’d left closer to the front of the room.
When Romney finished, he took a couple of questions and left the building. The reporters started packing their laptops.
Shear got up to unplug the wireless, but Smalley pleaded for a minute more. There was another round of plaudits to Shear for saving the day.
“I’ll bring it tonight,” he said, and headed towards the door.
Clint Hendler is the managing editor of Mother Jones, and a former deputy editor of CJR.