The fall of 1988: Politics and a pretty girl

(from Bobby)

The year was 1988. I was a junior at Oklahoma Christian University and editor of the student newspaper The Talon. Philip Patterson’s Newspaper Workshop class met at noon each Friday, and that first week of the fall semester, a beautiful/gorgeous/dazzling/resplendent 18-year-old freshman with red lipstick and long brown hair walked into the crowded conference room a few minutes late – a foreshadowing of many future arrivals on many different occasions – and had no place to sit. Gentleman that I am, and eager to make a good first impression with this particular young woman, I stood up and offered her my seat.

Tamie Dillard, I would soon discover, had an outgoing, bubbly personality and could write – and flirt – like no girl I had ever met.

It did not take me long to realize that I was in love.

So what if Tamie thought my name was Murray – as in Murray Evans, The Talon’s sports editor (now a writer for The Associated Press in Oklahoma City) – for the first few weeks of the fall semester?

The year was 1988, which meant that America was in the midst of a presidential race. At The Talon, news editor Steve Lackmeyer (now a hotshot business writer and columnist for The Oklahoman) and I decided to take every opportunity to cover campaign events in Oklahoma City. In our news writing, of course, we played no favorites. But in the newsroom, there were definite George Bush supporters and others who claimed allegiance to Michael Dukakis – and we debated the candidates and the issues late into the night as pasted up each week’s edition.

Much to my chagrin – or should I say delight – that crazy Tamie Dillard – flaming liberal that I would find her to be – aligned herself with a different candidate than mine and seemed to relish the give-and-take of our newsroom debates.

How unfortunate, I thought, that a young woman from the Bible Belt – she grew up all her life just down Interstate 40 in tiny Harrah, Okla. – would be so misinformed about what constituted the truly important issues and the right stances on them.

But at least she had an interest in politics, which meant that casually inviting her to join a group of friends who planned to watch the second Bush-Dukakis Presidential Debate on a Thursday night — Oct. 13, 1988 — could be done without too much fear of rejection. So it was that Dukakis and Bush, not to mention Bernard Shaw of CNN, Ann Compton of ABC and Andrea Mitchell of NBC, joined us on our first unofficial outing.

That next week, after a month and a half of contemplating it, I finally asked Tamie out on a real date. Undoubtedly, she’d ask herself many times over the later years exactly what she was thinking when she did, but she accepted. We were on for Friday night – Oct. 21, 1988.

The only problem: My brother, Scott, and I shared a car. Actually, we shared a station wagon, which is a whole other story. But Scott had plans to drive home to Texas that weekend, and he wasn’t going to let my (potential) love life get in the way of his plans.

So, I found myself with a date – something with which I had far less experience than writing news stories, and maybe the station wagon was part of the problem – and no mode of transportation.

Not to worry. My friend Steve understood the seriousness of my predicament and volunteered the use of his Hyundai. Meanwhile, my friend David Hartman (the previous year’s Talon editor, now a hotshot producer at Fox 25 in Oklahoma City) was watching Philip and Linda Patterson’s house while they were out of town. He offered to cook a romantic dinner for the two of us and serve as a waiter. We could watch a movie in the Pattersons’ living room.

Suffice it to say that Tamie was blown away by the thoughtful, romantic nature of our first date. I think I even gave her a flower when I picked her up. Linda Patterson, meanwhile, would be surprised to come home and find her fine china in the dishwasher, but that was between her and David. Tamie would wonder occasionally in later years, as we waited in line for a Friday night feast at Burger King, what happened to the hopeless romantic who wowed her on the first date.

Since that first date nearly 20 years ago, life has never been the same again. From that point on, we were inseparable – except for the long summer of 1989 when I worked in Texas and she was home with her family in Oklahoma. I would say we waited at least three weeks before the subject of marriage came up. I can’t recall exactly when I officially asked for her hand or bought her a ring – in fact, I think she picked it out herself – but I knew that God had answered all my prayers when I found her.

That is not to say that we haven’t had problems or fights or days when we both want to pull each other’s hair out. We have, and we do, but despite the fact she insists on spending nearly $5 a day on a cinnamon dolce latte at Starbucks and despite her incomprehensible lack of appreciation for country music, I can’t imagine life without her.

***
When I wasn’t wooing my future bride that fall, I was writing about politics. Steve and I got press passes and covered at least two campaign rallies for then-Vice President George H.W. Bush in Oklahoma City. At one of the rallies, some College Republicans from Oklahoma Christian were accused of violating a Michael Dukakis supporter's rights by messing with her signs. So, we ended up on the scene of real news -- with a front-page photo of the OC students at the rally. I don't recall being very popular on campus with our reporting, but Steve and I certainly got the scoop!

We also covered a rally by Texas Sen. Lloyd Bentsen, who was the running mate for Michael Dukakis, and put it on the front page. In fact, Bentsen's media people called and offered us an interview -- but we didn't get the message until it was too late. What a bummer for a 20-year-old student journalist! I don't think Dukakis came to Oklahoma City or we would have covered that, too.

Also in 1988, Bush's son -- whom I identified in my story as George Bush Jr. -- came to Enterprise Square USA on the Oklahoma Christian campus to campaign for his father. At the time, Bush the Dad had just gotten into a verbal dispute with Dan Rather on CBS, so George W. Bush commented on that, which was the lead to the story I wrote for the front page of The Talon. If I recall, Bush the Son took questions from a small group of reporters, including me. But since I had what I needed for my story after it was over -- and since I didn't know he would be president someday! -- I left after the news conference without actually going up to meet him.

In 1992, I was working at The Edmond Evening Sun when the first President Bush ran for re-election and held a big rally at the Thelma Gaylord Forum at Oklahoma Christian. Interestingly enough, the Forum is right outside where my Christian Chronicle office is now. For a local paper like the Sun, Bush's visit was big news. I know I wrote an advance story and a main story with a sidebar or two on the actual rally. I may have even done a second-day follow-up. But for someone used to covering local crime and university news, it sure was fun being in the middle of real national news for a few days.

One of my coverage areas at the Sun was the University of Central Oklahoma in Edmond. I covered that beat at the time former two-time Oklahoma Gov. George Nigh, a Democrat, was named president of UCO. I remember interviewing Nigh and writing a front-page story after his longtime friend Bill Clinton defeated Bush in the 1992 election. I recall a giddy Nigh singing "Happy Days Are Here Again" (or a similar song) as he reflected on the news of Clinton's election. By April 1996, when Clinton visited UCO at Nigh's invitation, I was working for The Daily Oklahoman. I wrote a scene piece on the crowds who lined up to see Clinton. Later that year, Clinton won re-election over Republican Bob Dole. I don't recall covering any of the campaign events that year.

In 2000, when George W. Bush and Al Gore waged a prolonged fight for the presidency, I was covering state prisons and other Oklahoma news for The Oklahoman. Which is to say that my job did not call upon me to write about presidential politics.

But in 2002, I moved to Nashville to work for The Associated Press. For the AP, I covered Bush's appearance at a national meeting of religious broadcasters. I also wrote about Gore a few times as he returned to Tennessee after the 2000 election. Around October 2002, I was called upon to get a response from Gore after, if I am remembering this right, the White House was quoted as saying his comments on Iraq were irrelevant and that basically he should be quiet. I introduced myself to him at a campaign rally he was attending for a state candidate in Woodbury, Tenn., and gave him the short version of the White House statement. He smiled and said something along the lines of he guessed that was part of the Bush strategy to bring a kinder, gentler climate to Washington. I wish I knew the exact quote, which I called and fed into a Washington writer's story, but I can't find it online.

By 2004, when Bush ran for re-election against John Kerry, I had transferred to the AP in Dallas. Being in Texas, Bush's home state, put me in the thick of a lot of campaign coverage. I covered Bush at two or three rallies in Dallas that year, including his final campaign event at Southern Methodist University on the Monday night before the election. I also wrote a handful of other stories during the 2004 campaign that got a quite a bit of play in newspapers nationally. You can read a few of them here. Most of my coverage concerned Bush, not Kerry, because Kerry didn't see any reason to campaign in a state he had no chance of winning.

This year, I have written a few stories (which you can find here and here) on the intersection of faith and politics in the race between Obama and McCain. I haven't seen either candidate in person, but if they campaign in Oklahoma City, I will probably go check it out it just for the fun of it -- and just to get the juices flowing again. And, of course, John and Barack, if you are reading this, please know that I am available to do an exclusive interview with you for The Christian Chronicle.