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 Photoblog part 1

A friend let me borrow his digital camera for the week. I am absoulety the worst photographer, but here is what I brought back.

The Big Tent

The Front of the Pepsi Center around 6:00 Tuesday

The view from the press section on Tuesday

Another view from the press section with all the Hillary signs hoisted




Hula Hoop for Obama!!




Senator John Tester of Montana at the Big Tent








What he said!!

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!!

DNC Day 2: Speech Report (Hillary, Schweitzer, Warner)

While my personal experiences in Denver are fun to write about, I would be amiss not detail the meat of the convention, the political speeches. The modern day verison of political conventions are very scripted events. There are few surprises, if any at all. Being shut out the first night of the convention, night two was my personal debut in the Pepsi Center. The speakers for Tuesday included Senator Hillary Clinton, keynote speaker The Honorable Mark Warner, and a whole host of governors, senators, and politicos. For a political junkie like myself, who watches MSNBC like most guys watch ESPN, this was heaven. For the purposes of this blog, I am just going to cover the highlights.

I did not make it in to the arena until around 6:00 that evening. While outside, I was able to hear a lot of the women speakers who were being pumped over a P.A. The following female Democrats all spoke for a few minutes, Senator Barbara Mikulski, Senator Barbara Boxer, Senator Mary Landrieu, Senator Blanche Lambert Lincoln, Senator Debbie Stabenow, Senator Maria Cantwell, Senator Claire McCaskill, and Senator Amy Klobuchar.


There were three significant speeches for the second night. The first being Virginia Governor Mark Warner, who is holding a steady lead in his bid for a Virginia Senate seat. If he wins we will have both seats from the Commonwalth of Virginia, with Senator Webb and soon to be Senator Warner. Warner was the keynote speaker, which is a big spot for the Democrats. In 2004 the keynote was none other than a junior Senator from Illinois, Barack Obama. In 2000 a young centrist Senator from Indiana, Evan Bayh was the keynote. Many have predicted that Warner will be the next "big thing' to come out of the democratic party.

Virginia Governor Mark Warner's highly anticipated speech fell flat on many levels. His message was OK, but at the time it seemed to be more concerned with making sure he gets elected Senator of Virginia than it did in electing Barack Obama to the presidency. His delivery was just flat, which put a damper on his message. He attempted to make a post-partisan plea for support when he declared that this election was not about liberal vs. conservative, or left vs. right, but rather the past vs. the future, whatever that means. He spent way too much energy detailing his accomplishments as governor of Virginia. All that said, I certainly hope he wins his Senate race, but I do not look for him to be on the national stage in four or eight years.

Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer did not disappoint. His speech may have been the best of the week outside of Senator Obama's. Schweitzer, with his folksy demeanor, is a natural speaker. He combined wit, humor, and stage presence in a way that would make savvy veterans of the national political stage jealous. Schweitzer, much like his state's Senator John Tester, is cut from a rugged frontier cloth. For his speech in the Pepsi Center he adorned a bolo tie, the old western special. Schweitzer bounced around the podium while making his points, in a very comfortable fashion. He definitely stole the show from the keynote Mark Warner.

Schweitzer's speech was direct and on target. Unlike Warner's, I did not have to fish for the central theme. he came to lay out in clear detail why Barack Obama is the only choice for November. He focused the majority of his speaking time on our failed energy policy. here is an example of the hard hitting Brian Schweitzer,

"Even leaders in the oil industry know that Senator McCain has it
wrong. We can't simply drill our way to energy independence, even if you drilled in all of John McCain's backyards, including the one's he can't even remember.

That single-answer proposition is a dry well, and here is why.
America consumes 25 percent of the world's oil, but has less than 3 percent of the world's reserves. You don't need a $2 calculator to figure that one out. There just isn't enough oil in America, on land or offshore, to meet America's full energy needs."

Schweitzer then goes ahead to detail out some of the Obama plan to energy independence, like investing $150 billion over the next ten years in clean renewable energy technology. Schweitzer was the big hit of the night, that is until the speech everyone was nervously awaiting was ready to go.

Hillary Rodham Clinton took the stage after a brief highlight video of her career. The white Hillary signs were quickly passed out all around the floor. The big tall blue Unity signs also made their way around the floor. By the time she took the stage the crowd was ready to go. Personally I was concerned by the media hype of a divided party. Let me tell you, that was a lie. I never once saw any discord between Hillary supporters and the rest of the convention. The media has hyped this rift up to the point where people believe it. Folks it is not there, period.

Hillary gave the perfect speech. During the primary, she became a much better campaigner and public speaker as the calender turned to March and April. Her newly found speaking talents were on display at the Pepsi Center. At times the crowd was so raucous, that her voice was barely audible. She effectively made the case that if you voted for her in the primary, you damn well better vote for Obama in the general or your an idiot.

I haven't spent the past 35 years in the trenches advocating for children, campaigning for universal health care, helping parents balance work and family, and fighting for women's rights at home and around the world ... to see another Republican in the White House squander the promise of our country and hopes of our people.

No way. No how. No McCain.

Barack Obama is my candidate. And he must be our President.

She repeated that last line over and over throughout the night. When she was done, the Pepsi center was in a state of euphoria. I walked out of the Pepsi Center with a big ole smile, knowing that the Big Dog was speaking tomorrow night, and he was not going to get outshone by his wife.