So…here’s the story…
Last Tuesday, September 30th, a gentleman from the Gallup Poll called. He asked to speak to the oldest male in the house (more about this in a bit). I told him there were no males in this house. He then asked to speak to the oldest female. He asked me who I would vote for if the presidential election was today, and I told him Barack Obama. He asked how sure I was, and I told him I was pretty sure. By this time I had an inkling this might be a screening call for the debate. The third question was the key one. Is there any chance you would change your mind and vote for John McCain? I answered, yes, there was a chance. I would like to think that my mind is open enough always to be persuaded by another’s views. That answer put me in a category of voters known as “uncommitted.” I was officially invited to attend the Town Hall Debate at Belmont. Two days later Gallup called again. They confirmed that I would attend the debate, secured information for a secret service background check, and invited me to write a question to submit to Tom Brokaw. I was told that there was a chance that I would not be on the stage, but if I was not selected to be on stage I would still be given a ticket to the debate. I was elated. Monday I received a package from Fed Ex with two cards. I was to write my question on each card – one for me and one for Tom Brokaw.
I knew my question would be about education. I had many wonderful suggestions from friends and family about farming, jobs, the economy, health care, the war – all really great questions. My passion, though, is education. So, if I had been called on, I would have asked the candidates what they had learned from our experience thus far with the No Child Left Behind Act. I understand that the headlines these days all deal with the economy and foreign policy, and, of course, those are important issues. I was disappointed, though, that there wasn’t at least one question about education. There isn’t much hope for the economy if we don’t have an educated and innovative workforce, and there isn’t much hope for foreign policies that aren’t developed by folks who can think critically and communicate clearly with others.
Back down here off the soapbox. I had to be in Nashville Tuesday morning at 8:30 am. Those of you who know me understand that I was there at 7:15. This was a great excuse for me to have breakfast at one of my favorite restaurants - Noshville.
French Toast. Had to throw that one in there.
We did not begin our day at Belmont. We started off campus. I found the building and checked in with the staff from the Gallup Poll organization. We had breakfast. (Heck yeah, I ate twice!) All of the invited audience members were randomly given numbers. 1 through 80 was good – that meant you were on stage and had a chance to ask a question. Numbers above 80 meant you were an alternate and would be seated with the general audience. I was number 70 – woo hoo! I loved looking around at all the people – different jobs, races, ages, political views. It was very neat.
We were greeted by Janet Brown, the President of the National Commission on Presidential Debates. She gave us the comforting news that the debates were one of the few shows on television these days that did not have a tape delay. There are very few truly live shows now. Remember Janet Jackson at the Super Bowl. Enough said. So. No tape delay at the debate. No pressure.
Dr. Frank Newport also greeted us. He is the editor of the Gallup Poll. He explained how we were selected. The National Commission on Presidential Debates gives Gallup Poll the task of randomly selecting uncommited voters for the debate. The voters were selected from thirteen counties surrounding the Nashville area. Cell phone and land phone numbers were randomly dialed by a computer. “Leaning” voters like me are balanced – half leaning Obama, half leaning McCain. They have to over-recruit to insure all the chairs are filled – hence the alternates. The caller asks for a male voter first because most people who answer the phone are older women voters. If they just took the first person who answered the phone, there would be more women than men.
There was also a great gentleman who kept us in line all day long. He was a former Marine and Secret Service man. He should have been a kindergarten teacher, though. He knew how to move over a hundred people from point A to point B in no time. “Group A, raise your hand. Group A, stand up. Group A, follow your leader to the door.” It made me laugh.
Tom Brokaw came in at some point during all this and greeted us. “You speak for America,” he said. Again, no pressure. He helped us all to understand the chances of our questions being asked. “You do the math. 90 minutes. Two minutes each plus a minute of discussion.” The best case scenario would have been fifteen questions. There were 80 of us, and some of the questions came from the internet. So…chances were pretty slim. We each got to personally hand Mr. Brokaw our question and introduce ourselves. He then left to read the questions and decide which ones would be asked. This surprised me. We did not know until live tv whether or not our question had been selected. The biggest fear was that someone from the media or a campaign would discover what the questions were before the debate so it was all secret until live tv. My best Tom picture.
We had lunch before heading over to the Curb Center at Belmont. Belmont students greeted us at the bus door with umbrellas to escort us through the rain into the building. “Welcome to Belmont!” They were so kind. The big excitment at the Curb Center was the swag bags on the table for all of us.
Nothing like free stuff to excite a crowd – t-shirt, lapel pin, Tennessee candy, a carbon footprint coupon (can someone explain this one to me?), and, my favorite, a Hatch print poster. Not a great picture, but you get the idea.
We went down to the stage area for a rehearsal. Belmont students played the roles of Brokaw, Obama and McCain. They were almost as much fun as the real thing. We got to ask them fake questions (in fact, we were told not to ask the real question) so we asked about Vandy football and Belmont basketball and fun stuff like that. Tom Brokaw returned to practice and check sound and lights. Back upstairs for a short break and dinner. I had fun watching the goings on outside from a Curb Center balcony. (We couldn’t leave the room.) Let’s see…we had dinner and a few minutes to primp in front of the mirror before heading down to the stage again.
Much of the actual debate is a blur as I was pretty much just thinking, “If he says Beth Halbert, you pick up the microphone, stand up, and read your question.” That’s pretty much all that was going on in my mind. I loved seeing how Tom Brokaw attempted to facilitate the discussion, keep everything on track. It seems like a very tough job to me. When the debate ended, I did have an opportunity to shake Senator Obama’s hand. He said, “Is it as cold in here to you as it is to me?” And I said, “It’s freezing.” Yep, that’s pretty much it. Took a lot of pictures. Didn’t get any really good ones, but here are a few. We were only allowed to take the disposable cameras that the debate commission provided. We couldn’t use our own cameras. President Beth -
Barack, Michelle, Cindy and John
And, one more…
I did not get to shake McCain’s hand. He slipped out. Obama, to my knowledge, met everyone there and even waited for the alternates to be brought down from the general seating to the stage area so he could meet them as well.
Well, that’s the story of my fifteen minutes of fame. It was absolutely the opportunity of a lifetime. Answer your phone. It might be Gallup Poll calling!
