Obama, Sports Illustrated and Spencer's YMCA

Posted Thursday, January 22, 2009, at 2:16 PM

As I mentioned in the inauguration notebook on Wednesday, Sports Illustrated has a terrific gallery of President Obama using the Spencer Family YMCA gym for a one-on-one game.

Former Daily Reporter editor and new dad Ben Montgomery tipped me off to the images. I thought I'd pass them along through this link to the Bill Frakes photos.

Candidate Obama also won the accessibility campaign in this reporter's eyes. While Sen. John McCain (in Okoboji) and former President Clinton (in Spencer) sequestered reporters to the back of the room to cover a stump speech (with no questions afterward) President Obama made time for local reporters after his first visit. He answered about a half-dozen questions from the group.

At the conclusion of his second visit, Obama's staff directed me, and Managing Editor Randy Cauthron into a small kitchen area, while state troopers waited in the hallway of the old Middle School for about 10 minutes of interview time. It's a moment I think about a lot this week.

On a final note, count my 7-year-old son Keegan among those who are happy about the nation's choice for the 44th president. His mom took him to her voting precinct back in November and he did some pretty vocal family lobbying for the Democratic nominee. From what I understand, he and his classmates were able to see the oath of office Tuesday.

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Russ Mitchell

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I'm a general assignment reporter and online contributor for The Daily Reporter in Spencer. I grew up, went to school and entered the work force right here in Spencer. And no matter where I was in life, I liked to read my local newspaper. My break in journalism came in the fall of 1997. The Daily Reporter's Sports Editor Steve Clark left early on in the football season for another opportunity. General assignment reporters tried to corral the sports results while they searched for Mr. Clark's replacement. In the meantime, I saw an ad for a "sports stringer" without fully knowing what a "stringer" was. I put together a "Pigskin Preview" (the Friday morning high school football preview column) for a writing sample. They let me pick up some of the slack part-time with cross country stories and football coverage for the smaller schools. I began helping more and more. Long story short, they found Mr. Clark's successor, but that guy didn't make it past Thanksgiving. By then, I had enough practice and demonstrated enough ability to become the sports editor. I then slipped into a general assignment position when it opened up in 1998. I've been on the news side, covering six counties for three different publications, for more than 10 years now. It all came from an interest in writing, some good timing and, hopefully, a bit of ability. I'll let you be the judge of that. The Mitchell Report will include views on current events, sports and pop culture.

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