Guiliani nearly declares at the GOP convention

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - It was all-out GOP politics Saturday as the faithful got ready to listen to former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani speak at a luncheon, part of the state Republican Convention here this weekend.


Rudy speaks the the GOP luncheon

The luncheon hall was packed with conventioneers and press, among whom I sat as a reporter for Reuters, hoping that Rudy would declare his formal entry into the race for president in 2008.

He didn't - though he came very close - and every time he asked the crowd if they would vote for him, they cheered wildly, much louder than they cheered the night before when Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger spoke at a dinner gathering of about 700 in the same Hyatt Regency Hotel ballroom in downtown Sacramento.

According to the reporters I talked with at the press gathering, Arnold got a very tepid response from the GOP, many of whom consider him a traitor for agreeing to compromise with Democrats on many issues. That compromising is what got him re-elected in November.

Rudy's speech said nothing about compromise and in his speech, he invoked Sept. 11 directly six times, Ronald Reagan at least as many, and he said that he supports the war in Iraq - and George Bush - completely.

If he runs - or should I say continues to run - his campaign is likely going to be based on keeping the nation safe from terrorists, with precious little offered on what the nation needs domestically. "The war on terrorism is our greatest concern," he said.

The ever-skeptical press pushed him as hard as they could in a press conference, during which he said that he had really already almost declared his candidacy.

But a reporter from the New York Daily News told me that there is no way that Rudy would ever formally declare his run for the presidency in California. He has to do that in New York so that his likely Democratic candidate, Hillary Clinton, gets the full brunt of the announcement. New York has a lot of electoral votes, too.

The food that was served at this GOP luncheon was an almost unrecognizable melange of chicken and pasta. The lunch served in the press lounge was probably a lot tastier - and it was free, too.

And my story for Reuters? Well, because Rudy (called "America's Mayor" by Bill Simon in the introduction) didn't actually declare his candidacy for president of the U.S. - or say anything directly bad about any of his potential Democratic opponents - my Los Angeles Reuters' editor said I didn't need to file a regular story, just a long package of quotes and observations that may eventually show up in future Reuters' stories when America's Mayor does make things more formal.

Story or not, Reuters will still cut me check for a pretty interesting day.


Rudy with supporters at the GOP convention

Magazine writing class is takes up blogging, big time

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - What should students in a magazine writing class do most: read, talk, listen to lectures or write?

It's no contest, really, not if you have ever taught a writing class.

Write, damn it.

So, as part of this semester's magazine writing class at California State University, Sacramento, I'm asking my 25 writing students to start - and maintain - a blog with entries about what they are studying, what they are writing and, I hope, their successes at selling articles to magazines.

The first 'blog' appeared just a few minutes ago and if the rest of class can match this, it's going to be a wild semester.

Here's the link:

Natalye Childress Smith

Ralph Thompson in 2005, at a library celebration

PETALUMA, Calif. - Prue Draper, who was Social Editor when I was at the Argus-Courier in Petaluma in the mid-70s, sent me this photo of the late Ralph Thompson, taken last year at a library function. He was a marvelous editor - and great human being.


Ralph Thompson, 2005

Ralph had changed, of course. Twenty years will do that to you. But his basic looks, his face, and his kind of thin-lipped, understated smile had not changed since I worked with him in the 1970s.

I learned just today that he had suddenly had a re-ocurrence of his cancer that put him in a lot of pain just before his death.

Sad, but I'm glad that Ralph didn't linger.

Here's the uncropped photo from last year of Ralph, his sister-in-law Marie, Prue and John Jackson, my very first editor who is still banging away covering sports.

Never give up! Never Surrender!


Ralph and the A-C gang

Ralph Thompson of the Argus-Courier is gone, but hardly forgotten

Ralph's plane
Originally uploaded by Brite light photos.

PETALUMA, Calif. - I just received word today that Ralph Thompson, my editor from 1973-1977 has passed away.

He was the kind of newspaperman that is so rare today, well, I can't even say how rare because I don't know anyone quite like him.

Ralph took me under his wing at the Petaluma Argus-Courier after a group of us young reporters managed to drive the incumbent managing editor to quit. Not the proudest moment of my life, but it seemed like a good idea at the time.

When Ralph figured out what we trying to do (and I suppose it was fairly obvious) he taught me what he called 'Ralph's Rule for Revolutions.'

WIN.

Win, because if you start a revolution, and lose, it's all over.

I gained a lot of respect for Ralph during that time and then in the ensuing few years, working as his assistant, he taught me a lot about how to tell stories, how to deal with angry readers (and sources) and to keep the good of the public always as our first goal.

He also taught me to be patient, though example. We had a publisher who made only bad decisions, and, by God, he stuck by them (His name was NOT Bush, by the way). The same publisher once refused to let me run a story about W.T. Grant stores going bankrupt, because, he said (I swear this is true, I swear!) that the local store would cancel all of its advertising if I did so.

Ralph just nodded his head and gave me the same look people give when confronted with the mentally disabled. We ran the story a day late, and Ralph put it on the front page, pointing out to the publisher that every other news organization in the U.S. had published it the day before. Our readers didn't suffer, but Ralph used that case over and over to show the publisher that I had better news judgment than the publisher did. So did Bonzo the Chimp, as we pointed out when the publisher was out of earshot.

When I decided it was time for me to move on, Ralph did what good bosses to - he helped me find a good editor's job at another newspaper and was very supportive, even though it meant that he would suffer trying to find a replacement. His boss (the mentally-disabled publisher) and other people in the chain of newspapers I worked for, were less kind and gave him hell for helping me.

He rather politely told them to go to hell.

He had an amazing amount of backbone, perhaps a byproduct of being a fighter pilot in WWII - and being shot down. He also was just a strong person. But he taught me when to bend and survive in a business that is famous for chewing people up.

It was sometimes a little awkward between us socially, because Ralph and his wife Hilda never had children and Hilda often would say in front of Ralph that I was like the son they never had.

Personally, I think they could have done a lot better and used to say so to cut through the emotional fog that Hilda laid down when she made the comment. Ralph would have made a great father, though.

When he retired 20 years ago, I surprised him and showed up at his retirement party. We had a great time, drank waaaaay too much, told stories about the mentally-disabled publisher and swore that we would keep in touch.

We didn't, of course, but two years ago, I suddenly wondered about Ralph and tracked him down. We exchanged several letters and I even sent him a couple of videos I had made of my sailing adventures. His letters were full of good humor and optimism, even though I found out through reading his obituary that he had cancer.

Ralph Thompson lived a full life and as I write this, I'll wager he has been reunited with the love of his life, Hilda, and they are bashing balls all over Celestial Acres Golf Course, drinking those damned martinis they favored and laughing hysterically.

When they laughed, even if you didn't get the joke, it was impossible not to join in.

It's no joke that he's gone, but as long as I teach journalism, his lessons will continue.

Ralph, rest in peace. And if you can't rest, play another nine holes.

When you write, you need a place that works well for you

LA MANZANILLA, Jalisco, Mexico - This website has been dormant for a long time, while I have been busy writing for money for news companies, including Reuters. I covered a federal terrorism trial for them and learned that daily wire service copy is hard duty. I knew it when I took the job but forgot about having to run for elevators and rude FBI agents who would just as soon push you down a flight of stairs as say hello.

But I believe the website will be revived this spring when I teach magazine writing again at my university and for sure when I finally leave the employ of the university. I hope to make this website part and parcel of that class. Watch for some interesting postings.

Right here in Mexico, I find that my desire to hit this keyboard - and write all kinds of stories and articles and ??? is high.

Here's palapa where I am writing from right now, during the day.


Palapa in La Manzanilla

In the brief time I have been here (less than a week) I have written an article for a boating magazine, six stories about education and have several query letters ready to go out to magazines for stories I would like to write in the spring, when (alas), I will not be in Mexico but back in Sacramento.

All of these stories, of course, are for money.

More on all that later.