Daily Show skit won't air, but...

It still makes for a great story, right?
I was on the phone with my brother Chad tonight, preparing to leave the secured area near the Pepsi Center, when I heard someone calling my name. I turned around and saw that it was Wyatt Cenac, whom I'd worked with on the Daily Show skit earlier in the week. He asked how I was doing, and I did similarly.
I asked whether they were going to air the bit we had done and he said that, unfortunately, they had decided Wednesday night to cut it. He was very kind, and thanked me for having been a good sport. He said they were going to be doing more filming that night, and already it was after 9:30 p.m.
My hat is off to them. I really enjoyed getting to know them, and I'm hoping that maybe I can catch up with them before they head to Minnesota.
I know now that anything is possible in America. You can run into some of the funniest people in the world, and it turns out they're just ordinary people (I know that's cliche, but it's true) with interesting stories. And it was a whole lot of fun.

Dominique Struye on America's standing in the world
The morning session today was fantastic.
Dominique Struye, the Belgian ambassador to the United States, discussed America's standing abroad, with a focus on Europe. He said he would be careful to generalize about the whole world, but that in Europe, opinion of the United States' government is low.
Europe wants anything but Bush, Struye said, and will be supportive of whatever president is elected in November regardless of party affiliation. But Europeans view John McCain as a man of the Cold War and Vietnam, whereas Barack Obama has a Kennedy flair, he said.
He described the presidential candidates this way: Obama is playing the hope card, as others have in the past, while McCain "systematically exploits" his role as an experienced would-be commander in chief.
There are three powerful forces at work in the 21st century world, he said: Nations, transnational/non-governmental institutions such as Green Peace and multilateral institutions, and the question is which of the three will lead. Every group wants to be a player, but each wants to play by its own rules, he said.
How the United States responds to the situation in Georgia will be key, Struye said. It has so far been unable to protect the territorial integrity of that nation, its ally, he said.
An incredibly intelligent man, and someone I would like to interview further. He stayed for a while and answered other questions about topics such as Turkey and the European Union.

Capitol Bob on the disco floor
Political conventions just aren't what they used to be, said Bob Schieffer, of CBS News' "Face the Nation," who has covered them since 1968. He remembers as an 11-year-old going to see Lyndon Johnson stumping for a senate seat. More fantastic than that was the fact that Johnson had arrived in a helicopter (Schieffer had never seen one before), and a voice resounded a megaphone. This was how Moses must have felt at the burning bush when God spoke, Schieffer said — he and others had no idea where the voice came from, or whether it was that of this man or someone else.
But Johnson came down from the helicopter, delivered a speech and threw his hat into the crowd. Later, Schieffer learned, the hat catcher had been planted. The person would run around to the other side of the helicopter, give Johnson his hat and drive to Johnson's next scheduled stop.
Today, though, Schieffer said that politicians appear at conventions as though they were some new make of car at an auto show. The press arrives and "kicks the tires," and everybody goes home. He got the audience laughing with these words, as he did throughout his talk.
I got the impression that this man loves what he does. He said today that he doesn't want to work for anyone but CBS for the remainder of his career, and he plans to be with "Face the Nation" for about a year, and will help transition to a replacement. That will allow him to continue making appearances for segments on the Sunday morning show, breaking news and special TV projects. Plus, he said laughing, his wife doesn't want him in the house too much when he retires (she was seated in the audience today).
And when he was first asked what he would be doing in the future, he quipped, "I'm just trying to stay on the right side of the grass," and referenced a line by Ronald Reagan about the obituaries being his favorite section of the paper, provided he wasn't in them.
Schieffer said he has made dear friendships with many of his news competitors, but he said most, including himself, have a friendly competition going with each other. Whenever they have the opportunity to stick it to the other person, they will.
One of the funniest stories he told was about a trip that Jimmy Carter took to visit the Shah of Iran on what was then New Year's day in the United States. He and Barbara Walters, both at a party (including a disco) in honor of the new year, had been trying to confirm whether Carter would be visiting Anwar El Sadat in Egypt. So they cooked up a plan: They would dance across the disco floor to Carter and ask him. They did, and sure enough, he confirmed he would be going.
Schieffer said he and Walters nearly broke their necks in the race to the phones to be the first to file the story.

Schieffer on journalism's future
There will always be a need for accurate information, Schieffer said, and for the courageous reporter with the courage to cover a difficult story. He hopes the print newspaper will be around in 5 years — it's the favorite part of his morning routine — but he realizes that people are increasingly reading publications online. But as an example of newspapers' spending, he said, The New York Times was spending $2.5 million on its Baghdad bureau security alone. Papers have been decimated by staff cuts, yet democracy can't exist without a free press, he said. The issue will not be the need for the product, but the medium by which it will be delivered.

My question for Schieffer
I asked Bob what the best strategy was he had at getting an interview back on track. People can get off point, or stop talking altogether, in an interview, so I wanted an expert's advice.
Ask the obvious questions, he said. The times he has been scooped were the times he figured he knew how the source would respond to a question. When candidates start to go down "the rabbit trail," he said, it's his job as a moderator to clear things up. But there's plenty to talk about, he said, including taxes and health care.
"It's also fun," he said.
I believe him.

Another notable Schieffer quote
"The government is us."