Political Junkie Ken Rudin
Written by Dick Pryor on Wednesday February 29, 2012
The Sheet
January 22, 2012
When NPR Political Junkie Ken Rudin made a special trip to Oklahoma for a meeting with the StateImpact Oklahoma team, we jumped at the chance to do an interview. I'm always up for some good political talk and that goes double for Ken. After all, this is the guy makes his living covering politics and even has it as his hobby. He owns one of the most extensive collections of campaign buttons in the country – now totaling more than 70,000. I should have asked him where he stores them. Oh well.
We did talk about national politics and the Republican presidential primary race, in particular. Our interview occurred on one of the biggest days of this political season. Former Speaker Newt Gingrich was surging toward victory in South Carolina (the vote came two days later) and Texas Governor Rick Perry had just thrown in the towel by suspending his campaign. We had heard earlier in the day that Rick Santorum was the likely winner in the Iowa caucuses, edging Mitt Romney by 34 votes. Good news for Santorum, but it didn't come in time for him to capitalize on the victory and gain a bump in the polls.
Ken shared his thoughts on the ultimate outcome of the presidential election in November (check back on November 7th to see how he did), the mood of the electorate and historical perspective on this year's campaigns.
Until next time,
Dick Pryor
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