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In the motorcade

We are moving to the hotel in Philadelphia. Interview on board was mostly about Katrina. After the cameras were ushered out, the President asked me to join him for a session of casual talk, and I remained in his office until well after the plane came to a full stop (in fact, I finally felt compelled to tell him the people of Philadelphia were waiting... he joked that he could hear stomping feet). Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., is also on the trip, and the President will be discussing the Alito nomination with him en route home.       

Now to the hotel, some time with the president backstage, and his speech to the World Affairs Council. Our final session with him will consist of questions on Iraq and the economy.

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On Air Force One

The President's office looks like a television studio. We are sitting in the staff quarters at midships, waiting for his arrival. I joked with the commander that I wanted him to level off as soon as possible so that we could get the interview started as quickly as possible. I just saw Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., a guest of the President on this visit to Pennsylvania. The greatest single aircraft in the world is, as usual, in beautiful shape. We should be wheels up in 10 minutes.

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Desination: Philadelphia

After a productive chat with the President in the Oval Office, we are en route to Andrews AFB where I will wait on Air Force One and greet the President when he exits the helicopter and boards the aircraft. We'll be wheels-up for Philadelphia in no time, and once we're close to levelling off, we will begin our second interview of the day.

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Familiar confines

Our morning begins in the Press Room, where after reporting a preview of our day for the Today Show (Video link), we huddle with our camera crews and await our summons to the Oval Office. That will be the first conversation of the day and the first of several venues. It will likely be a strange but familiar feeling to walk up those hallways. Having been a White House intern in the late 1970s, and then having returned to cover President Clinton for NBC News, these are familiar confines, and yet even the hallways completely reflect the mood of the Administration in power. Without the people who make the West Wing go, it is just a string of lovely offices (one of them in particular is designed in breathtaking fashion and has an unusual shape). 

I should quickly add: it never ceases to be a thrill and a great honor to visit the working spaces of the West Wing.

From the White House we'll drive out to Andrews Air Force Base, where we will pre-position for the President's arrival and conduct an interview while en route to Philadelphia for his speech to the World Affairs Council on the topic of Iraq. Yet another interview will follow, then back on the plane for the flight home. We'll detail it all and air the President's comments on a broadcast that it's safe to promise will be far from an average Monday. More later once we're underway.

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Winter's here

The season that never arrives with any subtlety has managed to remain true to its reputation. That was clear last night when the first pictures started coming in of the hulking 737 off the end of the runway, snow swirling around it, and an automobile vaguely visible near the nose of the aircraft.  Tonight we'll look at the incident and the aggressive weather system that is a part of the story.

Here in New York, despite dire, run-for-your-lives warnings about heavy snow, there is barely a flake visible as I look out on 49th Street (as much a function of the ambient heat thrown off by the pavement as it is to the insta-snow removal around this building), as is often the case after anything less than a blizzard here. The suburbs are another matter. Our listening post north of the city reports "a winter wonderland".

Also in the broadcast tonight: our own version of the debate over tax cuts that is taking place on Capitol Hill; the tragedy of those who are still waiting for the promise of government (FEMA) aid in the storm zone; and Mike Taibbi will have our latest profile in our "Making a Difference" series. Tonight, you'll meet an extraordinary woman.

Also on the broadcast, I will have a special announcement concerning Monday's edition of NBC Nightly News.

For now, we hope you can join us for our Friday broadcast. Have a great weekend.

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Crescent city generosity

I will admit there are days when all of us wonder if our reporting is having an impact. It is awfully hard to measure just how our work... (even IF our work) affects the people it's intended to. That is why this is a great day. Frieda Morris, our superb New Orleans Bureau Chief, sent me a FedEx box today, and inside were gifts from viewers in New Orleans. Gifts that people had dropped off for me at our NBC Station in New Orleans, WDSU. Think for a moment about what that entails: people I have never met took the time to go to the store and purchase something... all of them wrote an accompanying card or letter... and they did it to thank us for coming to their city again and again to cover their plight and their recovery. From where I sit, it is an act of deep meaning and incredible generosity... and is one of the nicest things that has happened to me in this job. When I was asked last week by Howard Kurtz of the Washington Post if I was on a "crusade" for New Orleans, I denied it, because of the pejorative connotations of the word he used, and because of my aversion to expressing an opinion about the subjects I cover for a living. My answer, adjusted upon reflection, is that I have always had a deep affection for the Crescent City and its inhabitants, and having been there for Katrina and the aftermath, it most assuredly is now an indelible part of my life... and has become a big reporting commitment (along with the entire storm region) for this network news division. I will probably never meet the kind people who have sent me these nice gifts, but on the off chance that they are visitors to this space: thank you so very much.

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A first, but not in flight

Not much time today... way too many meetings, conference calls and the like. Our editorial meeting was delayed by two factors: my concurrent conversation with Presidents George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton about their relief efforts, and the breaking news that first appeared in our computer system as a sketchy bulletin: "shots fired on board plane at Miami International Airport."Our control room waited for me to finish the interview with both Presidents (while they gathered more information), and then we did a special report on the network on what was known then. The facts, briefly, point to the first discharge of a weapon in the hands of the Federal Air Marshals who now fly on a good number of flights each day.  While sometimes (to travelers who know what to look for) they can be a painfully obvious presence on flights, especially the NY-DC-NY shuttles, that may be part of the idea. In this case, witnesses say there was some sort of mention of a bomb or similar device in his carry-on bag prior to the shooting, which reportedly took place in the jetway. We're now being told he was a 44-year-old American, and there was never any concrete indication of an actual bomb. I'm aware much of this may become moot by airtime tonight as we learn still more. (Editor's note: follow the latest developments here.)

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Fat Tuesday

We suddenly have a full broadcast on this day that has no overarching, slam-dunk, compelling, must-run lead story. And I'm going to hedge our bets a bit on story order. Veterans of this blog know that we like to call our broadcast rundown a "living, breathing document" just as we were all taught to call the Constitution. This intended-to-be-humorous delusion of grandeur on our part has some truth to it: I can't think of the last broadcast we did that exactly equaled on the air what was agreed to at 2:30 p.m. That said, Iraq will be at or near the very top tonight. Today saw the worst attack in three weeks, and we now know more about the 10 Marines who lost their lives there last week. The Saddam trial continues (fascinating profile of Ramsey Clark in this morning's New York Times) and the defendant is getting downright out of control.

The topic of Katrina was back on the Hill today, a hearing designed to elicit testimony of horror stories suffered at the height of it all.. .say nothing of the suffering still going on. Some of those testifying gave voice to a widely-held theory in some areas of New Orleans that the government overtly or covertly "allowed" (or more directly "caused") the flooding to happen where it did. Some of the talk is incendiary. The word "genocide" was used in the hearing today. Some of the talk has to do with the areas that were spared the water, compared to the areas now barren and desolate. It's emotional, but it is a very real subplot, one that cannot be ignored, as it's something you hear being talked about throughout that city. It's also reportedly the topic of a documentary Spike Lee is now shooting in New Orleans. And it's an issue this broadcast will deal with at greater length in the very near future.

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Reality vs. appearance

The above headline might as well be the theme of our day. By consensus at our morning and afternoon editorial meetings, we will begin tonight with the 9/11 commission's admonition that Americans are neither as safe as they think, nor as safe as they should be. It is sobering stuff, and tonight Lisa Myers will walk us all through it. Andrea Mitchell will have the latest on the debate over torture (coming off Sen. John McCain's appearance on Meet the Press and Condoleezza Rice's comments in a rare session at Andrew's Air Force Base today). Richard Engel will report on the trial of Saddam Hussein -- a particularly boisterous court session today, and what we can glean from the behavior of the defendant.

Another story germane to our headline today: the massive "document dump" coming out of the Louisiana Governor's office... their version of what was going on behind the scenes during those awful days when so many were suffering and Americans were watching it on live television. The material predictably cuts both ways (our staff has pored over a massive amount of it), but some of it is damaging to the Feds, in terms of reaction time and ultimate response.

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An anniversary

We'll keep it short this Friday. Author's prerogative. We've spent a lot of this day celebrating our one-year anniversary on the air. We had a very nice lunch in one of our studios, at which I tried to express my thanks to the best team in our business. I expressed my frustration over the fact that our medium cannot "widen out" to show the audience the smart, talented, dedicated, loyal and brave folks who work so hard every day to get us on the air. I am so lucky to be their colleague, and equally lucky to call them all friends. I'd prefer to shift the focus to them, and the work they do, on occasions like this one.

We had planned all day to begin tonight's broadcast with the economy. The numbers of late have been truly positive, and good news for the administration. The President spoke on the topic today from the Rose Garden, no doubt hoping his words would dominate the news cycle. We later learned that an hour before his remarks, he was briefed on the news that was to be released later from Iraq: the U.S. lost 10 of its best today, Marines, all killed in Fallujah, where 11 other Marines were also wounded. We'll tell their story tonight and check on the status of what some have called a 'low-level' Civil War developing there.

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