ST. LOUIS — Imagine a school of ravenous guppies swimming around looking for food. Suddenly, someone tosses a handful of crumbs into the water. The guppies go crazy! They flit here, they flit there, they swirl around in chaotic guppy mobs, inhaling each crumb before moving on to the next.
That's what it feels like in the spin room after a major political debate. And that's how it was Thursday night after the hotly anticipated vice presidential matchup between Sen. Joe Biden and Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin here at Washington University.
Schools of reporter guppies chased around political operatives and surrogates. Some of them, to be honest, were like crumbs. There was, for instance, a guy named Frank Donatelli, a Republican National Committee official, who attracted a crowd of three. That included the campaign volunteer who was holding a tall sign identifying him. (Just about everyone gets a sign. The McCain-Palin people held big square posters aloft; the Obama-Biden people held tall skinny ones.)
If Donatelli was a crumb, former New York mayor and onetime McCain rival Rudolph W. Giuliani was more like a whole loaf of bread. The crowd around him was about eight deep, and if you hadn't leaped toward him when he walked into the room, fahgeddaboutit -- you were not going to get close enough to get a quote. When he moved, the pack moved.
In one corner, Barack Obama's campaign manager, David Axelrod, was mobbed the moment he walked through the door. In his calm, measured voice, Axelrod patiently explained that Biden had won the debate on substance but that he never thought Palin would be anything other than a formidable debating foe.
"I don't think anyone would have been reassured by her answer on nuclear proliferation," Axelrod said. "She said it would be the be-all and end-all for people. I think we all agree on that, but what are you gonna do about it?"
Next to him, Obama campaign strategist David Plouffe was reminding people that he has always believed Palin to be a good debater, but "there was no 'there' there."
Under the Lindsey Graham sign, the South Carolina senator was explaining that he was pretty sure Palin "misspoke" in her answer about bankruptcy judges rewriting mortgages.
"So what do you say to people who think Sarah Palin is just not smart enough to be president?" asked a reporter, thrusting his tape recorder at Graham. The senator did not flinch. "She's not only smart, she's got guts," he replied, gazing over the heads of the reporters pressed around him.
