CBS News correspondent Dean Reynolds has been around the block. He’s covered his share of campaigns. He spent 23 years with ABC News and now reports on the Obama campaign for CBS. But Reynolds has been covering the McCain campaign “for the last few days” and he’s seeing some subtle and not-so-subtle differences:
The Obama aides who deal with the national reporters on the campaign plane are often overwhelmed, overworked and un-informed about where, when, why or how the candidate is moving about. Nor is there much sympathy for those of us who report for a newscast that airs in the early evening hours. Our shows place a premium on live reporting from the scene of campaign events. But this campaign can often be found in the air and flying around at the time the “CBS Evening News with Katie Couric” is broadcast.
And then there are the campaigns’ planes:
The McCain campaign plane is better than Obama’s, which is cramped, uncomfortable and smells terrible most of the time. Somehow the McCain folks manage to keep their charter clean, even where the press is seated.
And his blog post goes on — about filing times, proper schedules and keeping reporters waiting “because nobody seems to know when Obama is actually on the move.” Still, we wonder where Reynolds will be sitting on the plane when he’s back covering Obama.