Nearly a year ago, I started a journey back in time through the American presidency.

I left the newsroom and drove down along the dark Potomac River to Mount Vernon, George

Washington's home, on a cold winter night.

There were crackling fires and reenactors.

And you shall respond with a fervent and spirit in your song.

What I didn't mention back in that very first episode, though, was that there was also

pop music piped in over the stereo system, making it really hard to record those little

fire sounds.

This whole project has kind of been that way.

Things haven't gone as planned.

Tape recorders have broken.

Ellen D'Enjonson experts have fallen sick with Lauren Jydis right before interviews.

But even more than those unexpected twists and turns, is that the present has shown up

over and over and over in the past.

Fast forward 44 weeks to last night, election night.

Suddenly all I could see was the past, poking its way into the present.

I watched the results roll in on the newsroom screens until early into the morning.

And I thought about all the elections that have come before.

George H.W. Bush sitting alone in his hotel room, mourning his loss to Bill Clinton in

1992.

The Chicago Tribune going to press with the wrong headline about Dewey defeating Truman in

1948.

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