A Historic Moment Without My Rock

So one of the biggest moments in our country’s history happens last night and I had to hear about it from some local reporters instead of my rock, Tom Brokaw…

Now, that’s no offense to local reporters, but when it comes to big news I want to hear it from my guy, Tom. But unfortunately, when the news broke that Senator Barack Obama had been elected our 44th President, the local news had taken over. So, they were more interested in telling us about local races instead of the Presidency.

Now again, that’s not saying that local races aren’t important. It was just disappointing to sit through three hours of NBC News calling states and making predictions and then not being able to hear it from them when it actually happened (Kudos to WCHS which stayed with its ABC coverage until after the announcement had been made.).

So instead I had to listen to Keith Olbermann wax eloquently about this historic moment. But unfortunately, Keith Olbermann is no Tom Brokaw.

Thank goodness for the Internet, which allowed me to relive the moment we missed…

Not seeing NBC’s announcement of the win or their coverage of Senator John McCain’s concession speech was not only disappointing because I had been with them all night, but also because NBC’s coverage was so outstanding.

Brian Williams was pitch perfect as the anchor of the coverage. In all honesty, I’m not sure I’ve ever seen anyone so comfortable in such a chaotic setting. He was serious when necessary, but his great sense of humor was on display as well as he cracked jokes about NBC’s super-fancy graphics, Tom Brokaw’s numerous homes and Chuck Todd’s enthusiasm for numbers.

I’m still not sure why he felt the need to rat Luke Russert out for texting his girlfriend all night, but I’ll let that slide…

And there’s no doubt that Chuck Todd is no Tim Russert, but he is fun to watch. Although the graphics overshadowed him at times, Chuck did a great job trying to explain the complicated math involved. I truly hope NBC has big plans for him in the future.

The rest of the NBC team was outstanding as well with all of the usual suspects involved, including presidential historian Doris Kearns Goodwin, who finally appeared in the midnight hour.

And then, of course, there’s my rock. At times during this political season, Tom has seemed almost bored with it all. His Presidential debate performance didn’t really help matters. But last night, he was on top of his game as the perfect sidekick for Brian Williams. Brian integrated him beautifully; but more than that, Brian let him talk. And no one can talk about important events better than Tom Brokaw.

But as good as NBC’s coverage was, there was something missing. Or more precisely, someone. And he was VERY missed last night.

I’ll have more on that later…

For now, I leave you with a look at NBC’s announcement of President-Elect Obama’s win and the eloquent words of the one and only Tom Brokaw.

And don’t forget you can hear more of Tom’s words tonight on “The Late Show With David Letterman”…

Photos Credit: Virginia Sherwood/NBC