Tales from the Trail: The Board

I am from Buffalo, New York and we take great pride in Tim Russert.

He came from a hardworking family in South Buffalo and never forgot his roots. He was always one of us. Many of us from Buffalo have their own stories about Tim Russert.

To give you an idea of how big his heart was, I interviewed him while I was working at the ABC affiliate in Buffalo. I wanted to do a story on two newscasters from Buffalo, Tim Russert and Wolf Blitzer. So he did a story with me, even though I worked at another network. That was how much he loved Buffalo.

I interviewed him on the set of Meet The Press and, let me tell you, it was like winning the lottery. Oh, and he asked me to send him a copy of his story. I did. He sent me a handwritten thank you note.

(By the way, I interviewed Wolf Blitzer too, and he was terrific too)

When Tim Russert died, I was sent to Washington, D.C. to cover the funeral. We stood on the corner waiting for his friends and journalists to come out. Many people did not want to stop, but when I identified myself as a reporter from Buffalo EVERYONE stopped. They knew how much he loved Buffalo.

I am talking Ethel Kennedy, Bob Costas and Chris Dodd.

So, in 2000, I remember election night watching him with the board. He had all the technology in the world available to him, but he used the board. Simple and straight forward.

Julie Fine employs the white board, a visual aid popularized by the late, great Tim Russert.

Last night, as I was getting ready to go out to the set for elections, I had a calculator to add delegates. (Kids, it is a device that is not attached to your phone). My assistant news director had a white board and suggested I use it. What a great idea! My sister posted it and it got a huge response. I was almost nervous to use it.