The computers had barely cooled down from our frenzied coverage of the midterm elections for the Rockbridge Report the night before, but we were already back in the journalism lab, hard at work on our second publication of the General Constitution.

This second publication featured book reviews, spirited opinion pieces and personal reflections.

Senior Crighton Allen wrote a great piece on experiencing Mock Convention as a first-year and how to make the most of the experience even when you are on the bottom rung of the leadership ladder.

Sophomore facilities chair Ali Greenberg wrote a spunky article on being a Democrat in a Republican Convention.

But what dominated this publication, as well as every other news publication in the country, was the results of the midterm elections.

The 2010 midterm elections sent numerous incumbents home packing, shifted the control of the House of Representatives to the Republicans and set the tone for what’s up next in the 2012 elections. And our dedicated Mock Con political gurus were there to cover ever twist and turn.

Of course, it probably would have been easier on them— and ourselves— if we had given them more than a day to do it. But thanks to the political gods and the schedule makers at Washington and Lee, midterm elections fell just days before Parents’ Weekend. And we wanted every dad and mom walking around with a copy of the General Constitution tucked under his or her arm.

So we set the deadline for midnight and crossed our fingers.

It was an ambitious undertaking that had us editing until 3 a.m. But many hours, countless diet cokes and one Bistro run, we had ourselves a publication.

Anne put in an ungodly number of hours putting together the most amazing map to show the wins and losses in the House and Senate. Not even CNN tries to pull of a map as detailed and informative as hers.

Despite some minor complications, we were so proud of the end product. And we can’t wait to get to work with our newly hired subcommittee on the next publication!

Brooke Sutherland
Journal Chair