Political Punch
Power, pop, and probings from ABC News Senior White House Correspondent Jake Tapper

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Perils of the Profession

January 02, 2008 1:27 PM

So I'm in Mason City, Iowa, at Gotham Pizza & Gaming, my IBM ThinkPad laptop propped on a foosball table in the gaming room.

I'm working on a story about Mike Huckabee, who's in the next room. We've been up since 5 EST chasing him around the state, Des Moines to Fort Dodge to Mason City.

The Arkansas Governor seems in good spirits. He did a McCain-esque 40-minute press availabilty after Fort Dodge.

Anyway, so I'm writing it all up and then my Blackberry/cell phone (aka my electronic umbilical cord) falls into the goal of the foosball table.

Let me explain what a foosball table in Mason City, Iowa, is like. It's big. It's oak. It's heavy.

There were no ways to reach into the bowels of the foosball table to retrieve my -- now ringing -- cell phone.

Oh, no.

Luckily, my producer Richard Coolidge -- exactly the kind of all-business problem-solver you want as a wingman in a situation like this -- is on hand.

He asks the owners if they have the key to the table (to access the quarters and perhaps the Blackberry).

They do not.

Then Coolidge suggests we tip the Buick-sized game onto its side, with the aid of Politico's Jonathan Martin and Mike Allen.

Out of the goal spills the Blackberry.

Hooray!

-- jpt

January 2, 2008 | Permalink | Share | User Comments (2)

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I agree with reyonthehill. But you should have had your cameraman video tape the episode.

Posted by: James Danley | Jan 2, 2008 2:43:29 PM

Come on, Jake, post some photos of the operation.

Posted by: reyonthehill | Jan 2, 2008 1:43:28 PM

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