Little known fact- I'm a huge politics junkie. So I felt like a rock star when MTV asked if I'd be interested in covering the 2012 Elections. All year, I'll be out on the campaign trail for you.
For us. Power of 12 starts today. And this is OUR VOICE.

In Politics
By Andrew Jenks
12.20.11

I never thought my first chance to shake hands with a Presidential Candidate would be waiting in line to get a children's book signed. But here I am. At a Hilton Garden in Staten Island. There are mostly senior citizens in line, making sure that they brought the right Sharpie; all in anticipation of former Speaker Newt Gingrich signing the front cover, which displays a beautiful drawing of Ellis the Elephant, the book's main character*.

And I have entered the world of politics.

I've always been a politics junkie - whenever I turn on TV I go straight to the cable news stations. I DVR my favorite political morning show and watch it at night, before I scan the nightly news programs. It's gross. And now, here I am at a political press conference. CNN, ABC, and other big wig networks that I watch on a daily basis are all to my left, and to my right- nobody. I feel like too much of an outsider to be standing in the middle of the pack. Man, they look aggressive. Pens out. Fixing their hair. Putting on the perfect lens. I'm holding an MTV microphone…the other reporters are looking at me as if I checked into the wrong conference.

Monty, my friend and producer who has been to hundreds of these political events, is looking at me saying ‘Okay, Newt points at you - go, what's your question?'. Occasionally, Jonah, my lifelong friend and DP, worries about our audio levels (which wouldn't have mattered anyway seeing as though we had forgotten to plug the cord into the camera).

Once Speaker Gingrich walks in you can hear a pin drop. I've spoken with homeless people, convicted murderers, and people laying on their death beds - but this is different. And I've never seen people just shut the F up like this.
A potential future President just walked into an oddly named conference room on the first floor called the 'Cherry Willow Suite'.

People start yelling, 'SPEAKER!!!!!!' ‘MR. SPEAKER!!!!'

They're all shouting, one louder than the next, and finally I'm experiencing what I always watched on The West Wing ...somehow with no thought that I should be yelling the same. And then it clicks. This is the name of the game. It's all about being aggressive: sneaking into factories for a press conference, looming around a car that we think is about to pick up a candidate, waiting for three hours just to catch a politician walking down the hallway to use the bathroom.

Reporters keep yelling to get a question in. The Cherry Willow Suite has never been this loud.

Monty looks at me, puzzled. 'What the fuck was that?'.

'Next Question!'.

Second go around. I'm going for it, 'Speaker! Mr. Speaker!'.

My voice is being drowned out. It happens again the third time. I take a deep breath.

'Next Question!'.

I start shouting a combination of words that probably make little sense:

'JENKS! MTV NEWS! I'M TRAVELING! THE COUNTRY! EVERYWHERE AND NEED TO KNOW...'

In slow motion, Newt turns his head and looks right at me - suddenly, everyone is looking at me. Suddenly, everyone is in silence. I'm the only guy wearing a t-shirt. But the floor is now mine.

*In fairness, it is a book his wife, Callista Gingrich, wrote for kids about the history of the United States.