Covering Obama

From 6.30 AM to 5.59 PM, my duty was to jot down anything of interest and fire it off on my BlackBerry to other reporters.

When Obama arrived at a gym, the photographers jumped out of the van to snap pictures. When he slipped back into an SUV to8230; get changed before a security briefing, photographers had to dodge dozens of people intent on snapping their own shots.

I wrote: 8220;The President-elect left the gym wearing a black zip-up jacket, a gray T-shirt, black gym pants, white/striped tennis shoes, a black Sox baseball cap and sunglasses.8221;

We drove. We sat. And we waited. Out on the street as Obama8217;s motorcade drove into a secure entrance far from our prying eyes.

When Obama would walk to and from his vehicle, no one yelled out questions8230; What sort of answer could you get from such a rude delivery? A monosyllabic one, it turned out. When Obama was leaving a downtown high-rise, I asked 8212; loudly 8212; how his meetings went.

8220;Good,8221; he said, before slipping into an SUV and heading home.