Political Reporting: It's a Gulag!

[The Boys on the Bus] This column, in which Salt Lake Tribune Washington D.C. reporter Thomas Burr details for the newspaper's ombudsman the hardships he incurs while following Mitt Romney around the country, is a hoot.

It reminds me of all those interviews with celebrities out pimping their movies on late night talk shows, or authors who fly around the country to book signings for free publicity. You know, those interviews where the celeb sighs and goes on about how positively exhausting it is to "do press." You have to sleep in one hotel after another. You have to eat hotel food and take early morning wake-up calls. It's s-o-o-o unbelievably tiring!

You've got to wonder what the average schlub who drives around all night delivering pizzas thinks about such occupational hardships as those encountered on a big, stressful, national reporting job. Or the single mom who makes a glamorous living emptying bedpans at a nursing home. Obviously, Burr's job is just excruciating.

Hanging out in New Hampshire diners, yucking it up with the candidates' handlers and making arcane comments about the same old stump speeches. Sitting on a warm, idling campaign bus in a parking lot, eating sandwiches on only six hours sleep ... It's such a bitch. (Holly Mullen)