That Was the Week That Was

As I look back on the past week it can be described in two words: NEWSWORTHY and BUSY! It all began on Monday with my interview with Ralph Nader. He announced on Meet The Press the day before that he intended to run for president as an independent. As many of my friends and colleagues know, I am a HUGE fan of Tim Russert's and watch him religiously. This Sunday I missed Meet The Press, but part of my regular Sunday routine is emailing my executive producer during the show. He, too, is a fan. Only, this Sunday my dad e-mailed me and said, "You are going to get Nader, right?" I immediately e-mailed my executive producer to find out what he said on Russert and found out that he announced his candidacy. I said go for him. Let's get him on tomorrow (Monday). Well, we got him and happened to be the second network other than the initial interview with Russert. Not bad! I was psyched. Little did I know that this interview with Nader would draw so much attention and scrutiny!

It all began with my line of questioning about why he would decide to enter the race at this late date and given the recent turnout and fundraising dollars (record fundraising numbers). At first, he made his points and I made my counterpoints where necessary. Then he talked about lack of action and the corporate crime wave. I asked what he would do about it and how he would fund it. Everything was fine. But my next line of questioning turned the tables. I talked about the political dialogue — a dialogue that I think is one of the most exciting in decades. I said Nader, a well-known and respected consumer advocate, knew better than anyone that people are turning out in record numbers to speeches and rallies and that cable and network television stations are getting record ratings for debates so why risk being referred to as the “spoiler” once again? As you may recall, he was called a “spoiler” by many in the press for running in 2000 and getting 2.74% percent of the vote. Many believe that 2.74% percent was the difference between a Democratic presidential victory for Al Gore. Nader got about 2.9 million votes in 2000, the year where only about 544,000 votes separated Bush and Gore. The rest of our interview was shocking. You can see the clip. It’s the first time anyone has ever called me a “political bigot!” (Pt. 1 | Pt. 2)

Now talk about busy! Imagine getting all of this news in one week. Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke testifies in front of the House and Senate, President Bush announces a last minute press conference where he discusses the economy, NAFTA and the vast amount of untapped oil in the U.S., Sprint takes a massive Nextel charge, Sears has greater than expected losses, MF Global, a publicly traded futures and options business, announces that a rogue trader lost the company $142M dollars, Wachovia Bank announces that the Department of Justice and the SEC have subpoenaed the company regarding the performance of two employees related to activity with some municipal securities, oil trades above $103 a barrel, the U.S. dollar makes a new low versus the euro and a trade weighted basked of securities, FNM and FRE report record losses and the government makes moves to raise the cap and the list could go on and on. Talk about a reason to follow the markets. THIS IS IT!!!!