Shoe Leather

In a newsroom, there is no higher compliment than to be called a "shoe-leather reporter." It means you get out of the office and FIND stories -- do the hard work of knocking on doors, poring through politicians' expense reports or just badgering folks to get to the real story no one wants to tell you.

Steve Schmadeke, an unassuming guy from Iowa, is still the best "shoe-leather reporter" I've ever worked with. He would disappear from the newsroom around 10 in the morning and come back late in the afternoon with a bizarre story about a secret cabal of model-train enthusiasts or a controversial artist building a perfect replica of his 1970s suburban home or a man who painted his house neon pink just to piss off his neighbor. (Here's an article Steve wrote this week about the story behind the $260,000 a transient left under his motel bed when he died....Schmads never quits)

My point is that journalism is, at its best, hard work. So is running for office. Politicians should be hustlers, in the absolute best sense of the word. They should be constantly on the move, talking to as many constituents as possible every day. I say this in light of the $150,000 "sheen" the RNC put on Sarah Palin. That is the opposite of hard work -- much like the rest of her career, Gov. Palin took the easiest route to the top, putting on the glossy coat of Neiman-Marcus and base appeals to fears of "socialism" rather than doing the hard work of listening to voters and crafting a coherent political philosophy.

As for Barack Obama....see for yourself:



Photo by Callie Shell. Thanks to my wife for pointing it out.