DNC Day 4: Invesco or bust (part 1)

With the first three days of the convention under my belt, I was more than ready to get to Invesco Field (The home of the NFL Denver Broncos) for the Barack Obama speech. Having seen Obama speak once at Jackson State University during the primary season, I knew that I was not going to be disappointed. Also scheduled for Thursday were speeches by Bill Richardson, Al Gore, Jr., civil rights leader John Lewis, and Dick Durbin. Rumors of musical guests were floating through Big tent, as if seeing Gore and Obama speak were not going to be enough.


I was in a real hurry to get downtown in time to make the Big Tent by 10:00. Scheduled for 10:00 were appearances by the CEO of Google and Obama advisor Eric Schmidt, and MSNBC's budding progressive voice Rachel Maddow (also of Air America fame). There was a buzz in the air when I arrived downtown. Spike Lee had just been spotted and there were rumors of Obama or Biden being around. I hustled as fast as i could but only managed to get a glimpse of Schmidt and Maddow. Sometimes you are at the mercy of public transportation, and it just wasn't meant to be for me to arrive in less than two hours.


Nevertheless, the day was young and I was set up in the Big Tent earlier than I had been all week. Google provided us with delicious smoothies to tide us over until the lunch hour. I settled in only to be politely interrupted by a nice young lady conducting interviews for Politicker.com. She asked me questions and I gave her answers for about 20 minutes. Again the focus of her interest was on the Ronnie Musgrove - Roger Wicker race. Folks, the whole country is watching and they believe we can win. I hope I bring back some of their enthusiasm to Mississippi. I then talked to some of the Colorado blogger contingent about the Mark Udall race in comparison to the Musgrove race. The NRSC is using the same smear tactics across the board no matter the race, thankfully with little results to show. Both Mark Udall and his cousin Tom Udall in New Mexico are poised to win red seats for the good guys.


The word was passed around the room to get down to Invesco by 2:00 at the latest. I packed my gear up around 1:00, and ate a quick bite of the lunch provided by the Big Tent. After tanking up on water, I made my way to a watering hole and enjoyed one beer before asking directions to Invesco. A local I met to while enjoying my beverage offered to walk me toward the stadium. He was employee at the Union Station, an old train station, where MSNBC had their stage setup for the convention. He walked me down through a park to a location known as Confluence Point. From here I just had to cross the river and follow a biking/hiking trail for a couple of miles to reach Invesco.

Before long I was herded off the trail by security, as the trail was closed for security reason. I joined up with a local family who had secured tickets to see the Obama speech and let them guide me towards the stadium. We walked for what seemed like for days, stopping occasionally to buy a bottled water from the locals who were making the best of the entrepreneurial opportunity. Finally we reached the end of the line. Maybe line is a gross understatement. This was more like the line of lines. I bet the line stretched more than a mile. I took my place in line around 2:00. It was warm outside. Denver has that dry heat, nothing like the humid heat we get down here. Folks were complaining about the heat, yet I kept thinking how comfortable it was.

2:00 went to 2:30, which soon melted into 3:00. Our line had moved, but the end was still nowhere in sight. By 3:30 we made a turn down a dirt embankment, which was very dangerous especially for the elderly who were braving the temperature and long line. I met a family from Pine Bluff while standing in line. The matriarch of the family was a 76 year black lady who used a cane to get around. We made conversation to kill the time and help us to forget the pain in our legs of standing for so long. We ended up getting a cart to come get her after we reached ground level where a cart could reach her. I left her behind waiting on a cart with her family, only to find her already inside the stadium when I finally made it in around 4:00. Security like the other nights was tough, but what else would you expect or want.

After asking around, I found the sections I was allowed to sit in based on my press pass. I had the choice of three sections. As I was making my way to my seat I passed Howard Fineman of Newsweek in the tunnel. It turns out he was sitting right down from me for a while before he undoubtedly went on the air for MSNBC or CNN. I sat in the next to last row of the lower section. My view was obstructed by the media tents, but I had a clear view of the jumbo screens. The opening prayer had just been read when I made it to my seat. My section slowly filled up over the next hour. Sitting on my row about 10 seats down was Mike Murphy, McCain's chief strategist in 2000 and regular guest on CNN, MSNBC political circuit.

Don't ever let anyone tell you that the world does not care about American politics. Sitting to my left were two reporters from Paris. I had to wonder when they came back from the concession stands with three orders of french fries, if they really liked them of were just trying them for the first time. To my left were two reporters from Germany. They enjoyed the gigantic stadium pretzels. Behind me were two from Argentina and two for Mexico. In front of me was the Israeli contingent. I served as a cultural translator a couple of times, when references were tossed in the speeches that only an American would understand. I got a real thrill out of watching them wave the American flags that were handed out. They like Obama, McCain not so much.

Coming: Part 2 featuring the big speech