President Obama is coming here today. I believe I may have scored a press pass (in my capacity as a local political blogger) to go see him — the email from the White House press office was oddly ambiguous as to whether I actually will get credentials when I turn up and show my ID. Maybe my file is too thick and takes time to read. I will report on his talk if I get in. Maybe even live, if the wifi is able to handle the strain.
The law school’s press office tells me it’s going to be standing room only, in the sense that there won’t be chairs, which is why they didn’t invite faculty. I guess someone somewhere in the University figures we old geezers are not up to it. I was not aware that most of the chairs in what we now are calling the “BankUnited Center Fieldhouse” (it was the “Convocation Center” last time I went in there) were removable. Maybe they just mean we’ll be in some sort of mosh pit in the floor area?
Then again, maybe the press gets chairs. Could be tough to type on my laptop standing up. I might be reduced to phone tweets. That could be comic. (My Twitter handle is @mfroomkin. My brother, the full-time reporter, grabbed @froomkin.)
Whatever we are calling the place this week, I have to walk over there very far in advance of the alleged 2:30 start. If I get in, do I interview my fellow reporters, or bring some work to do?
