After my bad experience on the first day of the convention, I was hoping to make day 2 a different story. I was not disappointed. Freshly charged from a full night's rest, I made the bus early in the morning and found my way downtown by 10:00. I then caught the 16th Street Mall Line, a free bus ride that runs up and down the 12 block area of downtown. The bus took me to within a couple of blocks of the building where I could pick up my credentials for the convention.
On the 16th Street Mall Line I met a fellow blogger also on his way to pick up his credentials. Jay was from Montana and was mostly concerned with the renewable energy issue. Jay and I made our way to the hotel where we could pick up our credentials. With a big, plastic covered credential hanging around my neck, the bad memories of yesterday became a distant memory. Spirits lifted, I made my way to the Big Tent to see what my blogger contingent had to offer.
My legs were already reminding me of how much walking I had done the last 36 hours. The backpack easily weighed in at 15 to 20 pounds, and was rapidly expanding with each pamphlet, brochure, business card, and button I acquired. Jay and I opted for the Mall Line to ride all the way to the bottom of downtown where the Big Tent was located. I approached the Big Tent and found the front table where I received another credential that would allow me access to the Big Tent for the week. My track record of losing things weighed heavily on my mind while I secured the credential alongside the other one around my neck.
The Big Tent was as advertised, a big tent filled with bloggers like myself all scrambling around, jockeying for position at the tables lined up wall to wall that allowed you to sit down and work, all the while drawing precious power to recharge your laptop. Big screens adorned each wall that ran footage from the panel and discussion rooms next door or the convention itself if it was on. In one corner was an interview area, complete with professional lighting and microphones. Big names came in to the tent nearly on the hour to be interviewed for a few minutes and shake hands with the blogger masses.
I navigated the crowd inside the tent and plopped down at the end of a table where a seat was available. No sooner than I pulled out my laptop and fired it up, I was approached by a Japanese gentlemen hoisting a microphone. He asked if he could interview me for Japanese MSNBC. Nerves took over and I quickly started excusing myself, explaining that I had just got there, and that surely he might want a blogger from somewhere other than Mississippi for his interview. When he heard Mississippi, his eyes lit up, and I realized it was time to step out of character and give the interview. Once he started, I settled down. He asked all kinds of questions about not only blogging, the Big Tent, and Mississippi.
After the interview another gentlemen approached me from the crowd. He was a representative of Oxfam America and was looking for bloggers who might be interested in the Katrina Round Table Discussion. Once he heard I was from Mississippi he insisted that I attend. I had time enough to eat and meet a few folks before I had to be at the Denver Public Library at 1:00, which was located all the way at the other end of the Mall Line. I left the tent around noon and decided to enjoy the walk, all 15 blocks of it.
When I arrived at the Library, it was 1:05. I was late, sweaty, and out of breath. I have already posted on my experience at the Katrina Round Table, so I am going to skip that for this post's purpose. Once the discussion was over, I decided not to stick around for the meet and greet, which hindsight says was a mistake. I never made it to my next event, a BBQ with Howard Dean. My time would have been better spent following up on some questions raised by the Katrina Panel.
For some reason I could not locate the Howard Dean BBQ. I decided to give up and head back to the Big Tent to get ready for my first night at the convention. Once back at the Tent, I plugged in and finished blasting out my Day 1 report that I posted a week ago. I asked around to see when was the best time to head over to the Pepsi Center. Receiving a different answer nearly every time I asked, I decided to head on over around 5:00.
It was about a half mile hike from the Big Tent to the Pepsi Center. To get inside I had to stand in a long line for about a half hour. In line I stood next to two Swedes who were there to represent their political parties at the convention. According to them, Sweden had four major political parties, and the parties are not near as organized as here in the U.S. All of their parties are socially liberal. They were laughing that in the United States we argue over gay rights and abortion like they are major issues. They could not believe that we did not have health care available to all. I was embarrassed to explain that we had our share of knuckle-heads, and that the same folks who opposed the abortion and gay rights because of their "faith" were the same ones who opposed health care for all. Now they were really confused.
To get inside, we had to pass through security, which was being run by the TSA. Just like the airport, we had to empty our pockets into trays, and put our bags in the trays. After being examined for metals, we were finally cleared to gather our belongings and head inside. Inside the Pepsi center was a zoo. Everyone had a different colored credential representing either press, delegations, special guests etc.. No one could give you a straight answer where you could go with your credential. One of the ushers was sure he knew where I belonged and ushered me into the press section of the Pepsi Arena.
I am pretty sure the section he placed me in was for the old school press. I sat next to the Seattle Times and St. Petersburg Times. Once they figured out I was a blogger they did not have much to say to me. Some of these guys feel threatened by bloggers as impeding on their turf, and for free at that. After getting comfortable, I whipped out my laptop and set up for the evening. I am going to cover the speeches in separate posts. Tonight was Hillary, Warner, and Schweitzer among others.
After Hillary Clinton wrapped up her speech, the benediction was read, and we headed back to the Big Tent for the night. Halfway back, I decided to skip the tent and found a cozy little BBQ joint with cold beverages instead. I tanked up on BBQ and talked to the locals for about an hour before I had to hustle back to the Bus stop. The last bus to my hotel left downtown at 11:25, so I had to make sure I was there by then at the latest. or else face a $50 cab fare to the hotel. Thankfully I never missed the bus.
Back at the hotel, I stopped by the hotel bar for one drink, and mainly to meet the other bloggers who were parked there. We were not hard to identify with our credentials hanging around our necks like they were gold medals from Beijing. I met the team from FireDogLake, one of the biggest and best progressive blogs on the web. We enjoyed a spirited conversation on the election and finished off our drinks before deciding to retire for the evening. One thing is for sure, I evened the score with Denver and the DNC on Tuesday. My mind was still racing from the information overload I had experienced, but my body was so tired. I called it a night
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