Florida

October 31, 2008

Christopher Anderson has 2 to 5 minutes.

Most campaign events are more of the same ol’ schtick. But now and again, there are some historic events out on the trail. This one came in the form of the Ex and (looking more likely) the Next. For the first time during this election, President Bill Clinton and Senator Barack Obama appeared on stage together.

Bill Clinton is good. He is a master at political theater. After he made his case for Barack, he took a stool beside him and proceeded to stare at Barack as if he were witnessing the second coming. The intensity of his gaze was even more impressive than Barack’s speech. Just look at his face in the picture.

Photographing these events are a little like being on a Formula 1 pit crew. Photographers are rotated through to the “buffer” zone, a cordoned off area between the stage and the crowd. You have 2 to 5 minutes to make your pictures. After making a handful of pictures of Bill and Barack, I turned around and found myself looking back at the faces in the crowd, and their expressions were not unlike Bill’s.