From R-MWC to CNN, Crowley a witness to history

Candy Crowley remembers the moment when she realized Barack Obama might have a chance to become President of the United States.

“It was the day he announced his candidacy, in Springfield, Illinois,” she said. “It was really cold, but thousands of people showed up hours before he was scheduled to speak. From where I was sitting, up on a camera platform, the crowd just seemed to go on forever, and I noticed that it was actually more white than minority.

“That’s when I realized that this guy really seemed to have something.”

Nevertheless, Crowley was primarily covering Hillary Clinton at the time.

“I thought she would be the biggest story, whether she won or lost,” said Crowley, a Randolph-Macon Woman’s College graduate (Class of 1970) who will be speaking to classes at her alma mater (now Randolph College) and giving a public lecture on the 2008 campaign Tuesday (7:30 p.m., Smith Hall). “At one point, we just assumed she would. She had the name recognition and the credentials and her husband’s platinum Rolodex.

“With Obama, we were all a little late coming to that table.”

But when Obama won the Democratic nomination, the Washington-based Crowley was put on his trail for the rest of the campaign against John McCain.

I remember covering a Michael Dukakis rally in Richmond in 1988 and glancing over at the traveling press corps as the candidate launched into his address. Almost to a man (and woman) the reporters were mouthing Dukakis’ speech, word for word.

After all, no national candidate can write a different speech for every stop. I noticed that parts of what Obama said here in Lynchburg, for example, found its way into speeches in other places. He became like a rock band, cranking out his greatest hits night after night.

“You reach a point where the speech is no longer the story,” Crowley said. “It’s what’s happening around the speech, how the candidate is doing in that particular state.”
Meanwhile, campaign reporters sometimes reach the point of overload.

“It’s the constant traveling that gets to you,” Crowley said. “All those nights in hotels, rushing around to get from one place to the other. It’s just sheer motion, and you’re dragging 50 pounds of equipment around with you as you get on bus after bus.”

As she talked, she had me on speaker phone in Chicago so she could pack for an event in Washington.

Crowley has been with CNN since 1987, coming over from NBC News. She has been, literally, an eye-witness to history, covering the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, the impeachment trial of President Clinton and the terrorist bombing of the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut. Hers has become a recognizable face, which sometimes poses a problem.

“People ask me for my autograph and want to talk to me,” she said. “Part of me thinks that’s wonderful, and part of me feels uncomfortable with it. I’ve never had anyone come up and be ugly to me, though.”

Post election, her primary responsibility is covering the Obama transition team, but she has come to terms with the fact that she never knows exactly what she’ll be doing a week from now.

“There’s always a story,” she said, “and it changes all the time.”