All Over But The Shoutin'

Excited, all you political talkers out there? You should be. After all, Tuesday is your Super Bowl... wait, is the presidential election your Super Bowl? Because that would make the midterms, what, the AFC Championship? Or maybe the presidential election's your World Cup and this one's your FA Cup or... no, too Euro. Can we agree that it's a big day for you? Okay, then.

So you're talking about the election, and you're going to be talking about it Monday, and you'll be all over it Tuesday and do the post-mortem Wednesday and then... what? There's no trip to Hawaii for the Pro Bowl in talk radio. The election ends, and the action just stops. Right?

It doesn't have to be that way, but if you've been campaigning for one party or another on the air -- if you've picked a political side and sold it as the answer -- you've got a problem. And it could be worse if your side wins.

Wait, what? Well, if your people get elected, they're going to be expected to fix things, and fast. But we know that the task will be difficult, and we also know that politicians are politicians, even when they're running as outsiders and newcomers. They get to Washington, and they get sucked into business as usual. They're suddenly insiders, they find out what they have to do to retain their seats, they learn to play the game, and all that idealism and throw-the-bums-out stuff gets forgotten as they do what they have to do to get prime committee spots and party support for re-election. New blood, old blood, same thing. Either way, though, there'll be the election excitement, then a lull, then disappointment, then your listeners will want to know why you sold them a bill of goods.

Or you can take a different approach. You can tell your listeners that even with new blood in office, you expect results, and you're going to follow up. You're going to hold every politician, in either party, to their promises, and you're going to fry them if they sell you down the river. You're going to challenge them the same way you challenged the other side. The moment the election's over, you're going to start hammering on the things you think the winners should be doing for the public, and you're not going to let up. To borrow a cliche, you're going to hold their feet to the fire. You're going to represent your listeners and use your power to hold everyone in office accountable, whether you supported them or not.

You ARE going to do that, right? You ARE going to come out of the election absolutely on fire with passion and focus, demanding, on behalf of your audience, the best from your elected officials? You ARE planning exactly what issues you're going to hammer on the moment the election's over, aren't you? You ARE prepared to keep the energy of the campaign going right into the holiday season, correct? You ARE ready, are you not?

I sure hope you're ready. If you're so focused on Tuesday that you haven't really thought about what you're going to do after that, you might want to take a few moments to think about it. After all, no matter who wins, when Wednesday dawns, the economy will still be troubled, people will still be unemployed, and the same issues that got debated in the campaign will still be sitting there, waiting for someone to do something. Instead of celebrating or mourning the election results, you need to give the people who listened to you because there was an election coming up reasons to keep listening after the election's over. You have to be as on fire -- or more so -- after the election as you were in the runup to it. Get ready for that now. No letdown. The game may be over for the losing candidates, but it won't be over for you. It never is.

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Speaking of games being over, let's not talk about the National League playoffs, okay? (Hey, at least the Phillies kept it close, even if their bats fell asleep. It could have been worse, as the World Series is demonstrating) There's plenty of other stuff to talk about, even beyond the election, and the place to find it all is All Access News-Talk-Sports' Talk Topics column. This week's parade of discussion fodder includes the woman who killed her baby over Farmville, the guy whose refusal to take his turn in Russian Roulette did not end well, the alleged 1928 cell phone, the high school kids who waged a prank war using their, um, waste, the Eunuch Museum, a college course on Lady Gaga, a company offering employees unlimited vacation, tube-free toilet paper, a county that's allowing people to carry concealed weapons to Little League games, an artist whose "paint brush" is his, um, well, take a guess, the healthiest and unhealthiest trick-or-treat candy, why you might want to work standing up, and much more, including "real news" items about politics and sports and health and anything else you might find worth talking about. You can find it all at All Access, and you can find it in a handy Twitter feed at twitter.com/talktopics, to which you should subscribe right this minute.

What else? How about "10 Questions With..." Dr. Jenn Berman, who hosts a talk show for Sirius XM's Cosmo Radio and is, yes, the same Dr. Jenn you've seen on TV and on the bestseller lists. As always, you'll also find news, job listings, columns, music charts, and other resources at All Access, and it's all free.

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I suppose I should say something like "don't forget to vote!" or "do your civic duty and cast your ballot," but that's your prob... er, decision. Me? Oh, I'll be voting, all right. Given the choices in California this year, it's unfortunate that we don't have a "None of the Above" option. Maybe I'll write in Betty White for every office. Everyone likes Betty White. She couldn't be worse than the actual candidates.

Perry Michael Simon
Editor
All Access News-Talk-Sports
psimon@allaccess.com
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