Unable to contain my stomach rumbling, I switched from recording the speech to recording the snack. Cookie, cookie, cookie. Were they soft? Were they chewy? Were they as good as they looked? As official after official passed the microphone, I conspired. How could I work chocolate chip cookies into a story about the Tysons Express bus service? The minutes passed, the interviews followed. My feet lead me to my tastebud's desire - the cookie tray.

First bite and a follow-up to make sure - they tasted less delicious than they looked. Not to be twice trumped, my motivation to include the cookies only increased. You'd better believe that beautiful display of sugar, egg, flour, chocolate and butter highlighted my story. Where there's a will...there's a way...so while the cookie may not have been for me, it most certainly made it on TV!

Interviewing a professional political operative today, I heard campaigning parallels offense while policy relates to defense. Reece Collins prefers migrating from one campaign to the next because he feels connected to the voters, the message and the football. He gets to march down the field and factor into the score. "Policy wonks" as he called them, do not.

It turns out the political arena pits more than just Red and Blue across the line of scrimmage. Rather, tension exists between the campaign staffers and elected candidates' staff as well. Collins says policy wonks regard campaigners as slick soundbyte machines. Whereas campaigners look to the policy people and say, 'YO! You wouldn't be in office without us!'

So how does the classic football-ism, "offense wins games, defense wins championships" play out in the political arena? Perhaps it means a good campaign can get a candidate elected but the candidate's ability to create good policy will keep the them in office? Hum...maybe sports analogies and politics are as accurate as Peyton Manning after all.

After visiting various campaign offices, I saw the countdown to election day calculated in weeks, days...even hours. So it was no surprise that today - the day after the election - was a giant black hole. Inboxes were full. Emails not returned. The oiled campaign machine ground to a stop around midnight. Campaign workers who operated for weeks on little sleep and long hours celebrated or consoled their candidates. Candidates long groomed to get out their message no longer needed a public platform to pontificate. It was over.

Today was the day for personal phone calls. Thank yous to the volunteers who made winning possible or losing an unfortunate turn of events. Today was a day for sleeping in - or as one candidate's wife told me - a nap. Today was the day for taking a deep breath, until I banged at the door. That's the thing about the news. Even when the political campaign ends, the political coverage continues. I needed a follow up story even if I had to drive 100 miles around the Commonwealth to get it.  Which I did.

So while the candidates may have been relaxing and luxuriating in the comforts of their homes, I was the crazed reporter flying from county to county, hoping to make deadline without winding up dead. Glorious results in my own race against time: I made deadline. Now I'm going home to unwind!