REPORTER'S NOTEBOOK: Election becomes political media circus

and Lisa Levenson The Ringling Brothers, Barnum and Bailey Circus train sat parked on the tracks in Pittsburgh, but even the "The Greatest Show on Earth" could not compete with the spectacle taking place across the street at the Vista Hotel. For one thing, the hotel had more elephants -- Republicans, that is. They had come to cheer for GOP senatorial candidate Rick Santorum. And amid the balloons, the posters, the band and the television lights, the ballroom was a circus unto itself. Halfway across the state at the Hershey Convention Center, where Democratic gubernatorial candidate Mark Singel was headquartered, a similar atmosphere prevailed. In fact, it seemed more like a scene filmed for the big screen than a genuine election night experience. Reporters scurried frantically around the ballroom, rehearsing stories they would read on the air and jostling each other to get the best camera angle. "You should have brought your sunglasses," joked a reporter as he shielded his eyes from the glare of a dozen klieg lights. At the start, Singel's press corps was hopeful, anticipating a close race. But as returns from across the country came in, and Democrats were either unseated or defeated outright, the staffers' optimism gave way to cynical resignation. "We've done all we could with the hand we were dealt," said one. "It's frustrating to see Democrats losing all over." "This is an old-fashioned ass-kicking," agreed another reporter, using a perhaps unintentional pun. In Pittsburgh, the crowd gathered around large screen television sets, sipping Budweiser and rooting for their Republican favorites. "It's just like Sunday afternoon," one Santorum supporter said. "Everyone is sitting in front of the TV, drinking beer and watching the game." Occasionally the crowd let out a loud jeer, when the likes of Massachusetts Senator Edward Kennedy or, worse yet, Pennsylvania Senator and Santorum opponent Harris Wofford, appeared on the screen. As the night wore on, the crowd became increasingly nervous and hostile. Some took this hostility out on the media. "Look, the media still isn't smiling," shouted one well-dressed man, turning back to look at the risers that held an erector set of cables, cameras and telephones. "You guys like to accuse us of hiding behind the Second Amendment, well, you cowards hide behind the First Amendment." Such hostility had pervaded the entire campaign, Singel supporters said, attributing their candidate's loss to the enmity evident on radio call-in shows and in political advertisements. "Negativism is the problem," said an official from the state Democratic party. "You don't get a full appreciation for the issues and how complicated they are [because of it]." In a campaign memorable for its excessive expenditures, whirlwind public appearance tours and incredibly close outcome, not its attention to crime, education or job creation, her comments seemed especially ironic. The Santorum crowd was so turned off by the campaign that when Santorum tried to commend Wofford on his long career of public service and describe the gracious concession call he had received from the Democratic senator, hecklers drowned him out. "He's a liar," several in the crowd yelled in reference to Wofford. But negative campaigns are here to stay, one Santorum media analyst said. As if to prove his point, and perhaps in protest of sweeping Republican gains nationwide, the disc jockey began to spin Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Bad Moon Rising." The meaning, hidden or otherwise, was lost on the jubilant crowd that danced in a new GOP era on the ballroom floor. One can only wonder what the circus elephants in the box cars across the street were thinking.

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