Reporting and analysis the news was not what Candy Crowley set out to do with her life. After majoring in English, she wanted to write the “great American novel.”
Crowley spoke about her life and her career as a journalist Tuesday at Hutchinson Community College.
She told other reporters when she realized she needed a job. “It occurred to me that no-one pays you do that when it’s your first novel,” she said. That’s when she took her first position at a small radio station.
Years, and a few jobs later, Crowley ended up at CNN. There she built a career that brings her to another milestone; becoming the first woman to moderate a presidential debate in 20 years.
To prepare, Crowley has been watching old debates. “I’ve watched Carole Simpson’s debate because she was the last women to do it and Carole’s a friend so I wanted to see her.”
Crowley knows she has a big job ahead of her. Her town-hall style debate from Hofstra University on October 16 will include both domestic and foreign issues. The questions will come from undecided voters in the audience. “I’m the follow up person,” she says, knowing that getting politicians to answer candidly can be difficult.
“You know and I know that they're sitting in their wherever they are practicing for the first debate on Wednesday, rehearsing what they're going to say on any given subject,” she told us. “You have to trust that you know what the job is and the job is to get as much information as you can about two people who want to be leader of the western world that would help the person sitting at home on the couch make that decision.”
Crowley has her way. She asks something three times, in three different ways. “Three times and then I’ll drop it because if I get the same answer three times, it’s pretty obvious to the people watching that the guy didn’t answer the question.”
Crowley also has some advice for voters – especially those who are still undecided: Don’t rely on a debate to make your decision.
“Take three issues that mean so much to you so that’s what you want to know about and go research them,” she explains. “Listen to what they say, go on the web, spend an hour then you can ignore it for the next four years, but spend an hour and then you can figure out who comes closest to you in those three issues.”
Over the years, Crowley has worked at UPI, AP and with NBC News. She joined CNN when it was a young network, in 1987. In February 2010, she took over the show “State of the Union” and is now the Chief Political Correspondent, working in Washington D.C.
But at heart Crowley is a Midwest girl. She was raised west of St. Louis, in Missouri and visiting Kansas feels like home.
“The minute I got off the plane and saw wide open spaces…I’m happy to be here,” she says.
Her speech at Hutchinson Community College was part of the Ray and Stella Dillon Lecture Series.
From Hutchinson, Crowley planned to travel to Denver where she will watch and report on the first presidential debate Wednesday.
It will be moderated by the former anchor of "PBS NewsHour” Jim Lehrer. “I will feel relief for him when it’s over.”
Her debate is just a couple of weeks away and she has one goal for it. “My goal is to leave the auditorium on the night of October 16 without anyone, anywhere, having thrown a shoe at the TV going ‘why didn’t she ask him that?”
