by nine o'clock , people in racine and milwaukee , people in madison and delafield , and people who live so far north in the state that they need satellite dishes to get any television at all are looking up from their pancakes , their bowls of special k , their fried eggs , and their buttered english muffins to watch a small , nervous-looking policeman finishing off a large , florid reporter 's budding career as a demagogue by clocking him with a blunt instrument .