Walking back to Georgetown from Memorial Bridge, where I stood for at least an hour in silence watching the smoldering Pentagon, the first thing one could notice was that even M Street and Wisconsin Avenue had pretty much cleared out, as most, presumably, stayed inside to watch the ongoing news coverage.

While internet access was working well, land lines and cell service were jammed and inoperable throughout the day. Bill Kenyon, a political consultant friend from Texas, was in town, and wanted to have an early dinner. While not thinking much about eating, we agreed to meet at Nathan’s — at Wisconsin and M. Besides spacing out reflectively, and sitting quietly in my office the rest of the afternoon watching news, I don’t recall what I did until dinner.

But as soon as i walked down 31st Street for the two block walk to Nathan’s, i saw something I’d never seen except in movies: armored personnel carriers cruising around Georgetown. Vehicle checkpoints were being set up.

The dinner crowd at Nathans was unusually animated for the situation at hand, but then again, the gravity of the event was still sinking in. I ordered a filet and a bottle of Penfolds 389 Australian cabernet, and a strolling photographer walked by the table; one of those guys hoping you’ll spring for a cheesy photo with your date. Kenyon suggested getting a picture for historical purposes, and have saved it ever since.

Having just pulled that picture out to look at once again — now ten years gone by — the significance and raw emotion of that day has returned with a vengeance as I watch the 9/11 Ceremony in NYC, and the reading of the names from family members along with pictures of those who perished. God bless.

Later that night, unusual lights and what appeared to be aircraft were all over the skies above Washington. But there was no noise as these lights hovered about the city. These lights have been reported, but do not believe there was ever any official explanation. Watching the news into the early morning, and as world reaction set in, it was clear things would never again be the same.

Like millions of Americans, i was already at work that fateful morning. It was a sunny, beautiful day in Georgetown, and had just enjoyed a dark roast coffee on my porch overlooking the serene courtyard. It was just like any other day. Seated back at my desk right before 9am eastern time, i was, per usual, watching my three cable TV monitors when the first report came in about the first plane.

Looking at the live NBC video, and the initial speculation that a ’small plane’ had hit the first tower, my first reaction was that the large indentation on the building was much larger than a small commercial aircraft. A commercial aviation buff, i noticed the wingspan of the aircraft was at least half the size of the building width. Small aircraft? Something did not seem right.

The NBC feed resumed regular programming — but then when the second plane hit minutes later, it was full tilt bedlam on the cable news stations, and i sat riveted in my chair watching history unfold for the next hour.

Just a while later, an unusual, ominous thud echoed up the Potomac and i walked outside on my porch to see what was up.

Five minutes later, dark smoke from the National Airport area — down river from Georgetown — filled the sky, just as it was now being reported a plane had hit the Pentagon. I began receiving calls from loved ones asking if I was OK, and began making some of my own calls to the NYC area, which were unable to be completed.

I left my office to walk down to the M Street Starbucks and the fear in people’s faces was palpable. I, too, was becoming uneasy as fighter jets were screaming overhead, and the sounds of helicopters permeated the normally serene morning air.

Back at my office, I watched the towers fall — one of which I’d just visited a month or two ago to have a drink at Windows of the World. I thought of that large elevator I’d gone up on to get to the top of the tower, and the horror that must have ensued as building tenants attempted to flea the building. My emotions got the better of me, and had to lay down on my office couch as i was feeling weak and faint.

By about noon, the time I usually go running, I decided to head  down to the Memorial Bridge for a clear look down the river towards the Pentagon. When I arrived, traffic had stopped, people were out of their cars, and a small crowd — in stark silence — stood on the south side of the bridge as smoke billowed up the river from the blast area.

I joined the crowd, climbed up on the massive stonework to get a better view, and stared down river. No one talked, no one said a thing. There was nothing to say. Everyone, by then, knew thousands of their countrymen had been killed. We were all there, standing on Memorial Bridge, frozen in time and frozen in thought as the acrid smoke from the burning Pentagon dissipated into the 9/11 morning sunshine.

I was greeted this morning by a crescendo of email alerts and tweets declaring that Mitt Romney and Michelle Bachmann “won” the CNN GOP presdiential primary debate in Manchester, NH — and that’s essentially correct.

It’s also true that Tim Pawlenty was the consensus loser in the media beauty pageant for not backing up his “Obamneycare” attack on Romney; he looked weak, tentative and indecisive. A National Journal header on an email alert even declared this “Pawlenty’s Manchester Meltdown”. That’s a bit of an overstatement: Pawlenty scored with several good answers, one of which related to Right to Work issues prevalent in the state media discussion. While not an auspicious welcome to the national debate circuit, he has time to recover.

But this all goes to show how quickly the narrative turns: three weeks ago, Mitt Romney was ‘faltering’; a ‘weak’ front-runner in an even weaker field. As a disclaimer, I support Romney, but even the most objective observer will agree that he was poised, on-message with jobs/econ, credible, and looked the part of potential President. His debate performance was a visual validation of the Wash Post/ABC News poll finding him with a 49-46 lead over Obama. The bottom line: Romney is gaining stature — and that is the type of coveted commodity earned over time.

So Tim Pawlenty has dug himself into a temporary hole with an error of both style and substance: he was weak, and let Romney off the hook. But there’s a long road ahead, and this bump in the road will, if they’re as good as they think they are, end up helping him and his staff. The one general truism in campaigns, which are subject to such rapid, volatile swings: things are never as bad as they first appear, and things are never as great as they first appear.

Alexandria, VA — As Senator Ben Nelson (D-NE) already faces an extremely challenging re-election environment, it will be even more difficult for him in a presidential election cycle, when he will be running alongside Barack Obama. In an off-year re-elect, extremely vulnerable incumbents like Nelson have a better opportunity to define their record and their brand unencumbered by top-of-the-ticket linkages.

But 2012 will ensure the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) and the aggressive third party groups who will again dominate the paid media landscape have an easy mark in tagging Nelson as a willing, leading partner of the “Obama team”. Is it fair? That will all get lost in the wash and the record itself will determine his survivability.

To be sure, the Nelson re-elect will be more complex than simplistic linkages, and can surely point to in-state successes and examples of breaking with Obama and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. But regardless, the structural parameters already framing the race and the dialogue to follow will make this a decidedly uphill contest — especially as Nebraska is a relatively cheap paid media state, which allows even marginal third party groups to get on the air with blunt advertising messages.

It was also interesting to note key Nelson staff are already leaving: it was recently reported that Mike Hogan, his deputy chief of staff on Capitol Hill, with a strong health care policy background, is joining Ogilvy as a senior Vice-President. Gordon Hensley