Scene on the Road

This week Philadelphia elects a new mayor. Or rather a handful of us will. People who guess about those things for a living are saying that only about twenty percent of the city will turn out on Tuesday.

The big election is still a year away, but we got a taste of national politics last week when Drexel University hosted a two-hour debate. Seven of the eight Democratic candidates were in Philadelphia, on stage in the auditorium of the school's Main Building.

Usually called "hopefuls," they were, from left: Sen. Christopher Dodd, Sen. Joseph Biden, former Sen. John Edwards, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, Sen. Barack Obama, Rep. Dennis Kucinich, and New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson. Not invited, former Sen. Mike Gravel came to town anyway, and pod-casted from World Cafe Live, a block away on Walnut Street.

At a debate, only a handful of the hundreds of reporters who cover the candidates actually get to see them live. It's the same for us. There are a few "pool" photographers in the room, but most of us have to wait outside in the hall, above, to get in for a few minutes before the live broadcast begins, for what is called a "photo spray." I don't know when that term was first used, but it used to be called a "photo op." I first noticed it when Vice President Dick Cheney was quoted refusing to take questions from reporters in Baghdad this past summer. "This is just a photo spray" he said, as he posed for photos with Iraqi Prime Minister Maliki. At first I thought it was some sort of derogatory war-zone military jargon.

The "photo spray" is a bunch of photographers, escorted in a pack down to the front of the stage, crouching in the aisle before the "hopefuls" walk out. Then we get to shoot for about five minutes before the televised debate begins. The candidates mostly just stand still, trying to do something with their hands, talking to each other, and awkwardly posing for the photos.

It's a lot like shooting celebrities on the red carpet in Hollywood, except out there photographers have to shout out names to get the stars to look animated. Politicians just sort of do it on their own. Sen. Clinton seemed to be the most experienced at "handling" the spray, doing more gesturing, laughing and waving than the others. Apparently she recognized people out in the dark audience, with really bright television studio lights shining right into her eyes.

Presidential debates are usually late at night, right on newspaper deadlines, so when I've covered them in the past, I end up missing the actual debate because I am sending those "spray" photos back to the Inquirer. On this night though, I wasn't the only Inquirer photographer there. Michael Perez was shooting inside the auditorium and Clem Murray was editing right outside the door. So after grabbing Mike's cards and giving them to Clem on my way out, I was able to both shoot Drexel students and see it on the big screens around campus.

I also got to see the “spin room.” This is an area near where the hundreds of news media who didn't get into the debate hall watched it on television. The candidates themselves are always invited - but hardly ever show up.

The name came about because the room is where staffers and campaign spokespeople compete to "interpret" their candidates’ performance, trying to put their own spin on what everyone has just seen. I've always missed that spectacle in the past as well, because it always happens way past my deadline.

Drexel had some 300 student volunteers - almost one for every credentialed media representative - and things were very organized on campus. In the "spin room," students held up signs for easy-access to each of the candidate's people.

That's Sen. Clinton’s chief strategist Mark Penn in the middle, above. He provided one of the quotes/sound bites that showed up everywhere: Obama and Edwards had “swung and missed” with their punches.

I waited in the room to get the very last reporter talking to the last spinmeister with the last Drexel student holding a sign in the empty room. But it never happened. Instead I was the last photographer to leave, shooting "one more" photo as I walked to the parking lot.

Please check back here later this week to see my mayoral election photos, and click here for a slide show of photos I made following Michael Nutter around during the primary election last May.