I’ve still got more to post about Friday’s debate, and we’ll keep this thing going in the coming weeks as we move towards the election, albeit in a different form.

I’m fighting a pretty bad cold, so I took the weekend to re-coup for the workweek.   But there is more to post.  More to come…

We’re on our way back to Memphis. I will have plenty more to add tomorrow, including plenty of pictures and video.

Thanks for reading our blog this week.

As the debate ended, Spin Alley erupted into a major center of political activity.  Members of congress, pundits, and students began making the rounds giving their opinion of the debate.

On the air just now, Ursula Madden referred to this tent as a “madhouse.”  She’s not far off…

Raw video from Spin Alley to come…

Spin Alley has been pretty quiet during the debate…lots of activity, but not really much response to any either of the candidates comments.

That changed, though, with McCain’s comment about not having a presidential seal yet.  I wonder if that will be one of the clips we see over and over…

An interesting observation from Spin Alley - there’s a lot of media here covering the media.  I guess you could say that is what I’m doing right now as well.  But, as I type, I have a camera from who-knows-where recording images of me typing.

The spinsters are also in high gear - as each candidate makes a point, volunteers from Ole Miss, working for both candidates, are walking around passing out talking points.  I was just handed a sheet from the McCain team giving bullet points on “A Record of Fighting for Reform.”

…and a second, on “Business Tax Cuts.”

As I type, I am squatted down on the floor beside the WMC-TV 5 position in Spin Alley. I’m noticing some empty seats in the media filing center in the middle of the room, so I’m hoping to grab a place to sit for the debate, if I can sneak into a seat.

A lot of the pictures I am taking are too big to post, and without a proper image editing program in this laptop, I’m unable to size them down. So, I’ll be adding a lot of ’scene setting’ pictures to this blog tomorrow.

Here are a few I could squeeze in:

With two pictures of John Kerry on this blog, you might assume that I am a huge fan of his, or I am stalking him.  Neither is the case - however - it came to pass that as WMC-TV Special Projects Producer Jeremy Jones and I sat down for a quick bit to eat, the senator came by and asked if he could have the open chair that was at our table.

While Kerry ate a plate of ribs from the Rendezvous, those of us at the table asked about the status of the economic bailout.  Kerry replied by saying parties involved were ‘close.’  In fact, he said, a deal was done yesterday, until ‘John swooped in and stirred things up.’

As the conversation turned to tonight’s debate, when asked how long it took him to prepare for debates during his 2004 presidential campaign, Kerry answered, “About 59 years.”

Kerry, while friendly and congenial, was obviously pre-occupied, often checking his BlackBerry - even answering it once he spoke.  He was joined by Senator Carl Levin, who was mostly quiet.

Back now in Spin Alley, things are surprisingly quiet, a little under two hours before the debate.

Rudy Giuliani walked through Spin Alley…

…just before John Grisham stopped by to talk to Joe Birch.

Three brief scenes from outside the Ford Center around 3:30pm…

John Kerry, walking by the Ford Center, on his way to do an interview on behalf of the Obama campaign…

Hard to see, but this is Tom Brokaw doing NBC interview where members of the national and local media are set up directly in front of the Ford Center…