There’s not been much time…

… to write here about everything that’s been going on, although if you check out the Iowa Public Radio blog, you can see that my spare blogging time has been focused there.

NPR News has been here for several days in preparation for everything. Steve Inskeep, Robert Siegel, Michele Norris and Neal Conan flew in ahead of the storm on Saturday. NPR CEO Ken Stern rented a car in Chicago on Sunday when his connecting flight got canceled, and drove at what must have been a near-law-breaking rate of speed to arrive in Iowa City for an evening reception. NPR’s leader addressed a group of major donors wearing jeans and a t-shirt (his luggage arrived the next day) but no one cared – they hung on every word.

Talk of the Nation aired live from Des Moines yesterday – with thoughtful discussion about immigration among the topics covered. If I’ve ever been down on TOTN (who me?!? ok, I have occasionally) about some of its topics, I was more than impressed with the quality and tone of yesterday’s discussion.

We had another major donor event afterward, followed by a smaller dinner. It’s always fun seeing how public radio listeners absolutely love seeing the hosts and engaging with them, and Robert, Neal, Michele, and Steve were positively charming.

Today, the Democratic debate takes place – in about an hour. Then, tomorrow, after seven hours of management meetings, we’ll all take a breather on Thursday and jump back in for more caucus preparation.

While I’m not getting important work done, let me give a shout out to Abby Goldstein, Keith Shields, Laura Knoy and all the other great folks at New Hampshire Public Radio. We’ve collaborated on two live one-hour call-ins, The Iowa/New Hampshire Exchange (we both have shows called “The Exchange”), to discuss issues in the campaign and allow voters in the two first-in-the-nation states to speak directly to each other. The first two shows have been fascinating, and the third airs on December 12th at 2pm ET on both our networks.