Wow so today will be another short post as I am dead tired. We have been on the go without a break since Saturday and it has finally caught up with us. I am even typing this in bed.
Today was pretty good- there was the perfect mix of fun, controversy, and disappointment. C-SPAN broadcasted live again this morning with special guest Dana Perino. Even though I tend to lean more left, I was interested to hear her discussion. The talk went well and the student participants asked good questions. It was a little annoying that the show seem to take only Republican callers. I was hoping that people would take advantage of having such a high profile and intelligent administration but that did not happen. The callers were overly friendly and no one asked any tough questions- with the exception of one. A girl got up and asked about the rhetoric that came from the Bush administration following 9/11/01. She asked whether the repeated use of the words “threat” and “terrorist/terrorism” were used to instill fear in the public in order to get the American public behind certain policies. In her answer Mrs. Perino insulted every student in the room by implying that we were not significantly affected by the terrorist attacks of September 11th. Her words were shocking and my jaw literally hit the ground.
We also found out after various conversations with our parents that we were seen during this C-SPAN broadcast!!! YAY I was so excited!
The following speakers were just mediocre. I was very excited to see Ted Koppel but his speech was a surprising let down. While he had good anecdotes the question and answer session was excruciatingly boring. We even moved up to the balcony after. It seems every speaker talks about the media and the journalistic aspect of the election. While it is an interesting topic, it is honestly getting old.
We did get to meet some really cool kids from Montana. They sat in front of us and during our breaks we chatted.
Our afternoon site visit with the Algerian Ambassador. I was very excited about this and I can’t wait to boost that I got to meet an ambassador! Everyone was really nice and the ambassador and his staff were very receptive of us. They allowed us to ask a lot of questions and for the most part the ambassador was open with us. His answers to the questions were a little to PC. We asked some tough questions and he clearly was watching what he said as to not upset U.S./Algerian relations.
After this a couple of us went to the portrait gallery. It was very cool to see the Lincoln exhibit that has been set up for the Inauguration. We also went to the President’s Gallery to see the past presidential portraits. I made sure to stop at Teddy Roosevelt’s section (as he is my favorite) and see President Bush’s new painting. President Bush’s portrait is AMAZINGLY life like. I liked his very casual positioning, it is different but cool.
We are winding down for the night in order to prepare for a long day at the Capital.
