Five Gold Stars for former Governor Mike Rounds from Political Whispers

In a bruising major political campaign like this year’s South Dakota U.S. Senate race, relations between candidate and journalist can get prickly.

Let’s face it: my job as a journalist is to be a little prickly (or just remove the “ly”) when I ask questions, or as I like to think of it more positively, “being cheeky,” as my British friends would say.

But sometimes, both sides can let their hair down and act like real people.

Saturday, following former Gov. Mike Rounds’ news conference on the Keystone XL pipeline, I’m fumbling around, trying to get my audio and photo gear put away. Rounds looks at me and says, with a smile, “So Todd, I understand you used one of my answers on the radio as a classic example of a pivot in answering a question in politics.”

For once I didn’t miss a beat.

“That’s right Governor. And thanks for being such a loyal listener to (KSOO’s) Viewpoint University. Five gold stars for you!”

And we both laughed.

There is a kind of Kabuki theater aspect to asking politicians — any politician — questions. I ask questions I know they don’t want to answer. They give answers that they know I won’t think are an answer to the question.

But sometimes, both “actors” step out of their roles and remove their makeup.