The press gets around

When I walked into my hotel Friday, I nearly tripped over Washington Post political correspondent Dan Balz. Mr. Balz has been with the Washington Post for 27 years as National Editor, Political Editor, and White House correspondent.

Balz is also a homeboy of sorts, having been born in Freeport, IL and attending the University of Illinois. Balz has colloborated with Bob Woodward and co-authored the book "Storming the Gates: Protest Politics and the Republican Revival" with Ronald Brownstein of the Los Angeles Times.

Dan Balz was a panelist on Face The Nation is currently a regular panelist on PBS's "Washington Week", hosted by Gwen Ifill.

While channel surfing later that night and attempting to shake off the chill, I happened to see Dan being interviewed from Washington by Gwen.

And when I walked down for breakfast after the announcement Saturday, (without my camera) I noticed Gwen and Chris Matthews chatting in the lobby. I went back and grabbed my camera, but by the time I returned, Matthews had taken off.

But Gwen was very pleasant and friendly as she chatted with some friends.

(I should add that Dan Balz was also very friendly and gracious and I bumped into him and spoke with him on three different occasions. We talked about the cold, Obama, and my camera, among other things.)

So Balz was in Springfield remotely interviewed by Ifill in D.C. on Friday, then on Saturday, Gwen Ifill was in the lobby in Springfield and Balz had likely moved on to Cedar Rapids for Obama's next appearance. These folks must rack up an amazing amount of miles.


Roger Simon was relaxing with Balz in the lounge. Simon has won numerous awards for his political commentary writing, and is a blogger and Chief Political Columnist of politico.com, a new and major online political site launched and staffed by several journalistic heavyweights. In addition, Simon wrote the New York Times bestseller, "Divided We Stand, How Al Gore Beat George Bush and Lost the Presidency".

Simon's dispatch from Springfield can be read at politico.com here.

Balz filed this report from Springfield for the Washington Post along with Anne Kornblut. (I'm sure the absence of any mention of The Inside Dope must be due to an overzealous editor. ahem.)

***UPDATE***

Both Gwen Ifill and Roger Simon were guest panelists (along with David Broder and media critic Howard Kurtz of the Washington Post) with Tim Russert on this morning's Meet the Press.