Hagel's press conference would have been best left to a press release

Man, it's tough to get back into the swing of things, especially after taking a Spring Break that was definitely out of the ordinary. And although Universal Studios Florida isn't exactly an original Spring Break destination, where else can you sit right in the middle of an 8.3-magnitude earthquake, travel back and forth through time and hang on for dear life in the presence of a tornado, all in the same theme park?But while I was busy exploring the Islands of Adventure, having fallen 20 stories in a vertical freefall, being drenched during a heated battle of bitter rivals, starring at the business end of Poseidon's trident and trying to make sense of the nonsensical land of Dr. Seuss, Sen. Chuck Hagel paid a visit to our campus, only to announce that he and his family "will make a decision on my political future later this year," according to the Omaha World-Herald.

Man, I'm glad I was in Orlando then.

I even remember that before setting out on this adventure, I was meeting with a professor of mine about a project, and she asked me what I thought about Hagel and his upcoming conference. And although I'm still trying to shake off the jetlag, I think I remember saying that I probably wouldn't vote for him if he ran.

I was shaky about Hagel before I interned with the Pete Ricketts campaign, I was shaky when he decided to endorse Ricketts and, even now, I'm still a little shaky about him.

But that's not the point I'm trying to make here. The major point I'm making is that if Hagel didn't want to decide about his political future now, why did he have to hold a press conference to tell us this?

If he really wanted to wait, to bide his time and soundly make his decision, he would've been better served by either sending out a press release or, better yet, by not saying anything at all about a potential run.

The local, and maybe national, press may still follow you around; pointing out any event you'd give a speech at as an "attempt to garner support for a potential 2008 White House bid." They did that kind of stuff before Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama officially announced their bids. But all you'd have to do is just keep doing what you were doing before the speculation started, the press can just keep on speculating and when you're ready to toss your hat in the ring, then call the press conference.

And if he wanted to, while the press does the speculating, Hagel could get started on the behind-the-scenes work that could be done and get his forces in line, so that when he was ready to announce, his campaign would be ready to run at full steam seconds after saying, "I am announcing my candidacy for the 2008 Republican White House ticket."

Wouldn't that make more sense?

Former mayor Hal Daub, in an Omaha World-Herald article, said that Hagel has earned our "respect and patience," and that "he should be afforded both." That may be so, Hal, and in all fairness maybe I'm being a little too harsh on the senator.

But again, a little common sense would go a long way here, and it would've made more sense for Hagel not to have said anything than to travel back to Omaha, encamp at UNO and waste the media's time in the process by saying what he said.

I really don't know if this is the main reaction many had with the conference, since I somehow lost all the paper editions of the World-Herald (I quoted the online edition earlier) and the Public Pulse had been effectively eliminated on the revamped World-Herald Web site.

But looking back at this conference, what was said and how this could've been handled differently, I think that Hagel's press conference last week may have been the first misstep in a potential presidential campaign that might have some potential. But that's as far as I'm concerned..