January 20, 2009

Ok we did it. And those of you who read my blog last night were up and watched Morning Joe at MSNBC starting at 6AM know we did it! I found 3 other friends who are much a political junkie as I am. What fun!! We were up and waiting for Pam and Sydney to pick us up at 6AM to get to the Dubliner by 6:15AM. After all, we figured how big a crowd could there be at that time. Surely no one else really watches the show to know their plans. WRONG. What I came to realize this morning is for so many of us, this is our SuperBowl. We’re like middle aged men who can’t wait for football season and the chance to go to the big game! All the other political junkies like us were in the line which stretched for about two blocks, it was very cold with light snow… and we were dressed for TV, not for the winter. So we waited and waited…. then Willie came out to work the line, he posed for pictures and was just like he is on TV- cute and good humored! We slowly moved up and finally made it to the tent area. We saw Willie go back into the Dubliner at a door right by us and Sydney decides to follow. 2 seconds later, she comes out and motions us all to come in. We’re right in the area where they are shooting the show!

So, we wiggle into a spot directly behind Joe and stand there for 2 1/2 hours! I know alot of you saw Donna in the white coat- thank you Susan for telling me to move her to the side! We watched, we cheered with each new favorite who walked in and was on the show. We stood over two ladies from Atlanta who were eating breakfast ( and as they said, kept stretching it out for 2 hours so they didn’t have to give up their seat.) We didn’t get autographs, but we did get Morning Joe buttons and posters! We saw Tom Brokaw, David Gregory, Tina Brown, Mike Barnacle, Pat Buchannan, Wycliff Jean, the Governor of MA, Peggy Noonan ( who kept turned around and saying to the us- “isn’t this festive!”), we even spotted Carole King the singer in the crowd- waved and said hello- then Mika and Joe spotted her and brought her on the show! So Carole can thank us for letting them know she was there. Mika asked her to come back tomorrow since she was staying right there at the connected hotel!

What was so great was everyone who was on the show recognized how special this time is for our country. This is not just another political event. This is transforming our country and even the world. They all had big grins on their face and kept signing autographs, posing for pictures and were in great humor! We did go over to David Gregory and tell him what a great job he was doing on Meet the Press. He genuinely thanked us and thanked us for taking the time to tell him so. He knows this is his show to take care of and love and accepts the responsibility with great respect.

Then when everything was over and done and the crowds left, we sat down and had a super Irish breakfast! On the way out, we ran into the executive producer and assistant producer of Morning Joe , told him what a great job they’d been doing and they then posed with us in front of the Dubliner! All of this and it wasn’t even 10AM yet!

Yes, for those of you with eagle eyes, we were also on The Today Show when Meredith and Matt showed acouple of shots of Joe and Mika and we were yet again in the background.

We can’t do the Tuesday show, but we sure are going to be up at 6AM to watch and see who’s in our spot this time! Joe did tell the crowd to come on back on Tuesday, but we’ll leave that to another group of hearty souls!