All I can see is a fuzzy TV microphone bobbing over the top of the bright blue curtain. La Canasta employees file in wearing new white tee shirts and baseball caps. Up at the front, Maricopa County Supervisor Mary Rose Wilcox slips in, having finished the tour with the president. Not far from her is the Reverend Jesse Jackson. Suddenly, there's a swarm.
Bright lights flood the stage.
Reporters are scribbling and cameramen are pushing and the fans are blowing and I crane my neck to see over the crowd, up to the front, and there he is, the President of the United States. I'm sure everyone wants to hear what the president has to say, really, but the fans are so loud and it's so crowded and so hot that few people pay attention. Reporters are schmoozing pols, pols are schmoozing pols, and some people are even pleading with the Banana Republicans to be let out of the building. Bundgaard slips out. By 6, the whole thing is over.