DNC Day 4: The Obama speech

After soaking in the excitement of the Al Gore speech, I was primed and ready to see Senator Obama take the stage. Over the loudspeakers "Power to the People" blasted and the masses started to dance, again. As a curveball for the final day of a convention, five citizens would come up to tell their story. Most of them were former Republicans. All of them were from swing states. The issues varied from speaker to speaker as they each took a couple of minutes to tell their personal story to an audience 80,000 strong.

Perhaps the speaker in that group who stuck with me was a fellow from Indiana named Barney Smith. Barney had lost his job, his health care, and his pension due to his factory shuttering and heading overseas. Mr. Smith admitted that he had voted for George W. Bush on both occasions, which brought gasps of horror from the crowd. Barney seemed to be headed nowhere, until he fired off "I want a White House that works for Barney Smith not Smith Barney." The crowd roared with approval. My French neighbors leaned on me for cultural translation. I yelled to them "Wall Street", and they quickly began to mark on their notepads.

Dick Durbin of Illinois warmed up the stage for his fellow land of Lincolner. When Obama finally took the stage, the crowd rumbled down front at first. Those on the floor at the proper angle could see him come out on to the stage well before the rest. After the brief rumble the stadium erupted as loud as any Bronco Sunday it had seen in its brief existence. Chants of "yes we can", and "o-bam-a, o-bam-a" broke out spontaneously in each corner, none of them in congruence with the other cheers. The sheer joy and excitement of the crowd was electrifying.

Senator Brack Obama allowed the crowd to roar for a while and then began his speech with a tip of the hat to Howard Dean and Dick Durbin. Then much to the delight of the crowd, he accepted the nomination for the presidency of the United States. Again the crowd roared as if a Bronco touchdown had been scored. A master of prose and delivery, Obama electrified the crowd for a good half hour. There were several moments that stood above the rest.

The first powerful moment arrived early in the Obama speech. In this segment he articulates the pain we Americans feel in watching our fellow citizens suffer under our current economic system. He then punctuates with a call of "Enough!"

This country is more decent than one where a woman in Ohio, on the brink of retirement, finds herself one illness away from disaster after a lifetime of work.

This country is more generous than one where a man in Indiana has to pack the equipment he's worked on for twenty years and watch it shipped to China, and then chokes up as he explains how he felt like a failure when he went home to the family the news.

We are more compassionate than a government who lets veterans sleep on our streets and families slide into poverty, that sits on its hands while a major American city drowns before our eyes.

Tonight I say to the American people, to Democrats and Republicans and Independents across this great land, ENOUGH! This moment - this election - is our chance to keep, in the 21st century, the American promise alive. Because next week in Minnesota, the same party that brought you the two terms of George Bush and Dick Cheney will ask this country for a third. And we are here because we love this country too much to let the next four years look like the last eight. On November 4th, we must stand up and say, "EIGHT IS ENOUGH."

He then clobbers McCain with a reference to his 90% voting record with Bush administration by asking who wants to take a 10% chance on change. The next big segment begins shortly after where he attacks the Republican mantra of supply side economics today called the "ownership society."

For over two decades, he subscribed to that old, discredited Republican philosophy - give more and more to those who have the most and hope prosperity trickles down to everyone else. In Washington, they call this the Ownership Society, but what it really means is - you are on your own. Out of work? Tough luck. You are on your own. No health care? The market will fix it. Born into poverty? Pull yourself up by your own bootstraps - even if you don't have boots. You are on your own.

Well it is time for them to OWN their failure. It's time for us to change America.

You see we Democrats have a very different measure of what constitutes progress in this country.

We measure progress by how many people can find a job that pays the mortgage; whether you can put a little money away at the end of each month so you can someday watch your child receive her college diploma. We measure progress in the 23 million new jobs that were created when Bill Clinton was President - when the average American family saw its income go up $7,500 instead of down $2,000 like it has under George Bush.

Perhaps the best line of the night was saved for McCain's statement that he will follow Osama Bin Laden to the Gates of Hell.

For while Senator McCain was turning his sights to Iraq just days after 9/11, I stood up and opposed this war, knowing that it would distract us from the real threats we face. When John McCain said we could just "muddle through" in Afghanistan, I argued for more resources and more troops to finish the fight against the terrorists who actually attacked us on 9/11, and made clear that we must take Osama Bin Laden and his lieutenants if we have them in our sights. John McCain likes to say he'll follow bin Laden to the Gates of Hell, but he won't even go to the cave where he lives.

As Obama closed the speech, fireworks went of in a giant burst symbiotic with the crowd in attendance. People were grabbing signs and confetti, just to have anything from this speech as a memoir. I know my heart did not stop racing for hours. I could of taken on a bear that night, or at least an elephant.

DNC Day 4: The Al Gore speech

Al Gore is and and always has been a favorite politician of mine. When I saw the lineup for Thursday included the 2000 Democratic nominee I could barely hold my excitement. Gore and Obama in the same event is about all I could ask for. After Bill Richardson wrapped up his speech and Stevie Wonder left the stage, out came the Nobel Prize winner himself,Al Gore, Jr. The Mexican journalists seated behind me were talking too loud, so I had to give them the stink eye. There was no way I was going to miss the Al Gore speech.

Al took the stage with supreme confidence. He really found himself as a speaker after the 2000 loss to George W. Bush. He speaks with the conviction of a man who knows he stands on the side of science, knowledge, and reason. Watching his delivery, one could not help but wonder what might have been had Al found his voice during the election rather than after it. The crowd gave him an appreciative, long standing, and well deserved ovation. I was all smiles standing up for the majority of the speech.

To open, Al reminded us how different things might have been had he won a few more votes in Florida. We would not be in an economic crisis, an unwise war, or shredding the Constitution were he president. But that is not what brought Gore to Invesco. Al was there to give his support for Barack Obama and to idict the Republican party for their abysmal redord. He took direct, hard shots at the Bush-McCain record.

Today we face essentially the same choice we faced in 2000, though it may be more obvious now, because John McCain, a man who has earned respect on many levels, is now openly endorsing the policies of Bush-Cheney White House and promising to actually continue them. The same policies all over again?

Hey I believe in recycling, but that's ridiculous.

Gore continues to body punch the Republican brand with accusations of indifference to facts, and subverting the public interest for the interest of a few.

I believe the election is close today mainly because the forces of the status quo are desperately afraid of the change Barack Obama represents.

Of course it would not be an Al gore speech if the did not bring up his most personal of causes, climate change. This issue gets shoehorned into being a simple issue of environment versus business by way too many intelligent Americans. As Gore points out, this is a national security issue. As a superpower, it behooves our interests for the world to be in a position of political stability.

Military experts warn us our national security is threatened by massive waves of climate refugees destabilizing countries around the world, and scientists tell us the very web of life is endangered by unprecedented extinctions...

... And it just so happens that the climate crisis is intertwined with the other two great challenges facing our nation: reviving our economy and strengthening our national security. The solution to all three require us to end our dependence on carbon-based fuels.

The crowd roared with each Gore line. He still had one more good kick in the pants for the Republicans on energy.

So how did this no-brainer become a brain-twister? Because the carbon fuels industry - big oil and coal - have a 50 year lease on the Republican Party and they are drilling it for everything it's worth.

I was really starting to like Gore the attack dog. As Democrats, we tend to be the nice guy too much, and count on the American public to see through the lies. Obama is obviously more comfortable not playing attack politics. He needs respected politicians like Al Gore to lay out a fierce indictment of the failed policies of the last eight years. Gore did not disappoint.

We can tell Republicans and Independents, as well as Democrats, why our nation needs a change from the approach of Bush, Cheney and McCain. After they wrecked our economy, it is time for a change. After they abandoned the search for the terrorists that attacked us and redeployed the troops to invade a nation that did not attack us, it's time for a change. After the American principle first laid down by General George Washington, when he prohibited the torture of captives because it would bring, in his words, "shame, disgrace and ruin" to our nation, it's time for a change.

I could not have said it better myself, Al.

Invesco Photoblog

I had an obstructed view of the stage, but still managed to take a few pictures that will give you an idea of what it looked like for the Obama speech at Invesco Field.

DNC Day 4: Invesco or bust (part 2)

Finally settled in my seat, I pulled out my steno pad and prepared to try and be a journalist. By day I am a network engineer, so my journalistic skills are all ad-hoc. I would be lying if I did not say I was not a little bit intimidated by the masses of professionals to my flanks. I thought for a second and realized that I had a single credential just like them and would one day regret any opportunity missed by not wanting to make an amateur mistake. The speeches started with C list speakers like the Denver mayor of former mayor. My noted were flying fast and furious with each speaker for the first couple of hours.

There was music between every speaker, sometimes live, other times prerecorded. Almost all of the music fit in to the change theme of the night. The press section behaved like a fairly normal press section, with the exception of us rowdy bloggers sprinkled in. Outside our sections there was a party going on. As one analysis I read put it, this looked like an American convention instead of a political convention. There were old and young, black, white, latino and others, white collar and blue collar, straight and gay, everyone was there. It was like they went and picked the first 80,000 folks they could find and drew a beautiful cross-section of America.


August 28 is a specail day in American history. Barack Obama's history making speech was set to occur 45 years to the day when Dr. King gave his "I have a dream" speech in front of 200,000 on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. Wrap your head around that for a while and see if you don't get a little choked up, or maybe you had to be there. John Lewis, a lion of the civil rights movement, spoke for about 10 minutes while parts of the Dr. King speech were played over the P.A.

Will.i.am. came out and performed his viral youtube hit "Yes We Can" to the actual video on the big screen behind the stage. At one point Stevie Wonder made his way to the stage and performed two songs. One I had never heard, the second being "Signed, Sealed, Delivered". The place nearly came unglued during Stevie's performance. Sheryl Crow played a 4 song set at one point. "A change will do you good....", or something like that was the big song that the crowd joined in on.

The atmosphere per the New York Times was part political convention, part Woodstock. After watching the stiff GOP convention this week I get what they were alluding to. Our convention was a celebration of achievements reached, and of the impending change Barack Obama will bring to Washington. I was brought to the point of joyful tears several times before the man even took stage. This was a party like no other.

As day faded to night, the guest list morphed from the C-list to the B-list and finally to the A-list. Bill Richardson gave a spirited speech in front of a nearly packed house, a just reward for his support despite the heat he felt. Governor Kaine of Virgina spoke as well. For this blogger the night revolved around two speeches, Al Gore and Barack Obama.

Coming: Al Gore and Obama speech breakdowns

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

DNC Day 3: Day of the Big Dog

Wednesday morning I hopped out of bed and pulled the curtains open, ready to tackle day three of the convention. Having one full day under my belt, I felt like I knew the ropes as well as I was going to this go around. When my feet hit the floor, I was reminded how far I had hiked and more specifically, how bad my feet and legs hurt. I would be willing to bet I walked at least five and more likely closer to ten miles a day at the convention. For a fellow who punches keyboard for a living, that is a lot of hiking. Sore legs and all, nothing could contain my downright giddiness at the prospect of seeing Bill Clinton speak live. If you passed me on the streets of Denver that day, I was the one stuttering about going to see the "big dog". I was supposed to get to go see him in Tupelo at the Furniture Market this year, but it snowed and I did not want to try my luck driving in the snow.

I tanked up on a big breakfast at my hotel and made my way to the bus stop with two nice young fellows from California who were part of a Young Democrat delegation. We waited for about 30 minutes for our bus, while one of them ranted about everything that had annoyed him so far at the convention. He mentioned that he wanted to get in to politics. I did not have the heart to tell him that he had the diplomacy skills of a hand grenade.

The word on the street for Wednesday was to watch out for the protesters. Things were supposed to take a turn for the worse as the protests were scheduled to be stepped up. I never saw this amount to anything, but I was warned nevertheless. After riding the RTD (bus) to my usual stop on Market Street, I exited the bus and entered in to a long conversation with a gentlemen with a thick British accent about Naomi Klein's latest book, "The Shock Doctrine". He was the first person I have met that had read the book. I then quickly hopped on the Mall Line to make the ride towards my credentials.

With Wednesday's credentials in hand, I made my way down the Mall Line again to the Big tent. Here it was around 11:00 and I had nothing to do but blog and soak in the action. I found a seat close to the interview corner of the tent. Next to me were bloggers from Washington state, Alabama, South Dakota, and England. There was a girl standing close to me that had on a shirt that read, "I blogged your girlfriend", utterly classic. It was time to get down to the business of blogging. I started working on organizing my notes and began work on several blogs, some of which have yet to come to fruition. It was hard to concentrate, due to the zoo-like atmosphere of the Big Tent. There was a microphone in the corner, with someone making announcements every five minutes. Markos was posted along the wall granting someone an interview every hour or so it seemed. The Kos bunch was set up on some couches in the back of the tent. Here I met Brownsox and Plutonium Page, two well known front pagers for Daily Kos. Brownsox wanted to talk to me about the Musgrove race.

One thing I took away from the Big Tent was the overall excitement for the Musgrove Wicker race. I must have answered questions what felt like 100 times over the four days. I really wish Ronnie Musgrove would have come to Denver and shown up at the Big Tent. He would have been well received. On this Wednesday I had the privilege of shaking Senator John Tester's of Montana hand. He gave a brief interview followed by a round of shaking hands. He, along with Senator Webb, were my two favorites of the class of 2006. Tester reminds me of a Mississippi Democrat in the way he carried the red state of Montana. He is an organic farmer, who is pro-gun, and sports a flat top. Every time I saw an ad for him he was standing on a farm, or in front of a tractor. He neutralized the GOP attack (like Childers) and then whooped them with good ole economic populism.

The roll call vote was very exciting inside the tent. We all stood and cheered when our state's delegation was called on. I was the lone ranger for Mississippi, but did my best to let the others know there was one redneck in the house. As honored guest after honored guest made their way around the tent, with the microphone belting out each new arrival, I found it increasingly hard to blog. Before long I looked up and realized it was getting close to 5:00. I wanted to see Bill Clinton speak and thought it might be best to try and head on over to the Pepsi Center. The line this time was twice as long as long as the day before. I was not worried after the night before, I just figured it would work out. Boy was I wrong.

I finally made it inside to find all of the curtains to the portals I was assigned to use pulled shut. Apparently the DNCC gave out an extra 3,000 credentials than they had seats. Unfortunately for me, I was a part of the unlucky 3,000 for night three. About that time, I heard "...President Bill Clinton", from inside the arena. My heart sank, but I decided make the best of it and gathered around one of the many big screens that were set up in the corridor. By the time he started talking there was at least 50 of us gathered around this one TV. In our group was young, old, black, white, and a latino fellow wearing a union hard hat with every union pin made this decade adoring his hat band. He was all smiles during Bill's speech. That scene was repeated every other portal where another group would be gathered around a TV. There were easily well over a 1,000 folks out in the hall on just my level, not to mention the other two or three levels of the arena. We cheered and laughed as Bill gave his speech. He is still the best speaker out there, minus a fellow named Obama.

I then decided to watch the rest of the night from the comfort of the Big Tent, where there was free food and free beer. I missed the John Kerry speech in my haste to make it back from the Pepsi Center to the Big Tent. Day three had its share of disappointments for me, but all in all it was a winner. I learned that I better head to Invesco early if I wanted make sure I was able to see Obama speak. After Biden's speech, which was my favorite of the night, I decided it was time for some fun in Denver. The RTD ran up until 11:25, so I had an hour an a half to mill around downtown Denver. I took some great pictures that are being transferred and cleaned up by a friend of mine. Time got away from me, and I had to run two blocks in five minutes to make it to the bus stop in time to get home.

Next up Day 4, the big day, the big speech!!