Beth Androuais's blog

They called the Republicans early. It took longer to call the Democrats, but I was updated as a woman from NBC sitting behind the media risers would yell the numbers out to a man from NBC on the front media riser. Not a bad spot. All the waiting amounted to less than 15 minutes of Edwards talking. He didn't yawn. Like I thought, the fun began with the editing. I got back to the newsroom around 10 p.m., and stayed until about 2:30 a.m.

It’s a little after 7 p.m., and things have settled down in the room where Edwards will speak once the caucuses are over. TV folk are on laptops or chatting amongst themselves — some about the quarrels over space that occurred earlier — the tension is down, and the room is chilly, probably in anticipation of the heat from the people who will come to hear Edwards speak. One cameraman says he hopes it will all be over by 10 p.m.

I shouldn't have had that soda before I got to the hotel. I haven't had a soda in a while, and I'm starting to feel it. What doesn't help is how on-edge all the tv folk are. I dropped from the second riser to the first to leave after I set up my video camera, and got some stern looks from a camera crew. Risers are not the sturdiest things, and I didn't realize the crew was going live. They weren't even rehearsing beforehand, and no one announced they were going live. So I froze on the riser until the shoot was over.

I’m at the Savery Hotel in downtown Des Moines, waiting to be let into the ballroom where John Edwards will speak to his supporters later tonight after the caucuses. I’m taking video for the Des Moines Register, the newspaper where I interned this summer.